New federal ag programs issue call for applications

Saturday, February 2, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

The new national agricultural policy framework doesn’t begin until April 1 but the federal government is already accepting applications for two of its programs – marketing and innovation.

On Thursday, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz announced the five-year $341 million AgriMarketing program is now accepting applications. This program will help the industry adopt assurance systems to meet consumer and market demands, such as food safety and traceability. It will also provide support to the industry for maintaining and seizing new markets through branding and promotions.

Ritz also said details on the government’s new $115 million AgriCompetitiveness program are now available. Funding under this program will be used to help the farming sector adapt to rapidly changing and emerging global and domestic opportunities, respond to market trends and enhance business and entrepreneurial capacity.

“Our government knows the importance of innovation and trade to the agriculture industry, which is why we made market development a cornerstone of Growing Forward 2,” Ritz says in the Jan. 31 press release.

Patrick Girard, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada spokesman, says applications for the AgriMarketing and AgriInnovation programs are being accepted now to give applicants sufficient time to pull together what can sometimes be complex proposals. But funding decisions won’t be announced before April 1. He wasn’t able to confirm before the deadline for this positing if applications are being accepted now for the AgriCompetitiveness program as well.

The government is also releasing details about the programs now so the agricultural industry can become familiar with the types of support that’s available and that will allow potential applicants to plan and submit their applications, he says.

The AgriMarketing and AgriCompetitiveness programs are in addition to the $698 million AgriInnovation program that provides funding for the sector to develop and commercialize new products and technologies. Funding for the agri science clusters comes from the AgriInnovation program. It began accepting applications in December 2012. All three programs come into effect on April 1 as part of the new Growing Forward 2, the national agricultural policy framework.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales  says the marketing, competitiveness and innovation programs aren’t part of the bilateral negotiations on Growing Forward 2 between the federal government and provinces/territories. That means the federal government can implement these “when they want.”

Taking applications a few months ahead of the start date, “just means they’ll probably stop taking applications long before March 31, 2018” when Growing Forward 2 expires, he says.

As for the other non-business risk management programs that are part of the joint federal/provincial bilateral agreement, “they (the provinces/territories and federal government) haven’t even signed the bilateral agreement yet and probably won’t until the middle of February,” Wales says.

He also notes the federal government designed the marketing, competitiveness and innovation programs but there hasn’t been any ongoing conversations with farm organizations about details and “that’s always a poor thing.”

But Wales agrees food safety programs are important and it’s good the federal government is kick starting them and getting projects going. Branding is also important to the industry “primarily for international sales and somewhat for inter-provincial sales” and it’s good the government started those programs now too.

Al Mussell, George Morris Centre senior research associate, says in announcing the details of the marketing, competitiveness and innovation programs the government is being consistent with its priorities to reallocate resources to competitiveness-type programs from business risk management ones.

When Growing Forward was introduced in 2008 and after programs started there were problems “getting them up and running particularly on the research side,” he says, noting the government is interested in avoiding those types of lags this time.

Mussell says the government is moving in the right direction by introducing programs to fund innovation and competitiveness. “We’re hearing more and more about issues in productivity and competitiveness in the Canadian economy in general.”

Food processing, particularly further food processing, has suffered major setbacks in competitiveness “so we’ve got a long way to go and it’s good to get on top of this,” Mussell says.

In total the government has earmarked $3 billion over five years for Growing Forward 2 programs to foster innovation, competitiveness and market development, along with funding business risk management programs to continue helping farmers in times of severe market volatility and disasters. BF