Changes needed now to stave off looming Sask. farming crisis, experts say

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Significant changes are needed to stave off a looming farming crisis in Saskatchewan, according to leaders in the agricultural sector.

A recent Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) report outlined a major shift ahead in Canadian agriculture, with an estimated 40 per cent of Canadian farmers planning to retire by the early 2030s.

The report, released earlier this month, outlined the issue and proposed solutions across key areas including accelerated immigration, increased mechanization and automation.

Jeremy Welter, a director with the Agricultural Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) from Kerrobert, Sask., told CTV News the study’s sobering findings were not unexpected.

“The aging population of our agricultural producers, it’s not something that's surprising. It's something that's been happening for one or two decades already,” he said.

According to the report, since 2000, the average age of Canadian farmers has risen from 50 to 56 years old. Changing dynamics, such as the practice of extended family helping out with farm work becoming less common, has led to an industry that’s grappling with a systemic shortage of workers.

“That combined with the fact that the average farm size has continued to increase, what you end up with is kind of a double-edged sword in the sense that there's now more work to do and there are fewer people to rely on to do it,” Welter explained.

According to Statistics Canada, as of 2021, 46 per cent of Canada’s total farm operators were found in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Just 9.6 per cent of the farmers in the three prairie provinces were younger than 35 years old.

Saskatchewan alone accounts for 43.1 per cent of Canada’s cropland, reporting 40.3 million acres in 2021.

In total, there are 189,874 farms across the country, consisting of 262,455 farm operators and 242,052 paid employees, according to Statistics Canada.

A NEEDED RISE IN IMMIGRATION

The first point of growth is a needed increase in immigration of around 30,000 farm operators over the next 10 years, RBC’s report outlined.

Welter agrees that immigration is part of the solution. In his view, for it to be utilized properly, changes must be made to regulations when bringing farmers from outside of Canada to Saskatchewan.

“For the average farmer to bring someone over from for example, Ukraine, or South Africa, they've already got a lot of the knowledge base available. However, when they come over to work on a Saskatchewan farm, they are classed federally, as an unskilled labourer,” he said.

“They [the federal government] don't recognize the skilled workers, and they are incredibly skilled and highly technical positions. There is a pool of workers out there that can fill this but we have difficulty in accessing them due to our federal immigration laws.”

This lack of recognition, from farm hands that operate heavy equipment to foreign professionals such as veterinarians, is causing places like Saskatchewan to lose competitiveness over an already small pool of qualified agriculture workers, Welter claims.

“There is a very limited pool of skilled agriculture workers in the world. We, as Canadian agricultural producers, are in direct competition with agricultural producers from every other area of the globe and we should never kid ourselves about that reality,” he said.

“If we do not get it right and attract those people and convince them that Canada is the place to go, we will lose out to other regions and the reality is we will not even realize we have lost.”

A PUSH FOR EDUCATION

The second point of growth identified in the study is the promotion of agricultural education across colleges and universities to attract new students.

Ray Orb, the president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), agrees that immigration is a tool that should be used to solve the problem, in part.

He believes that education opportunities for domestic students is of the highest priority.

“Most of all, I think education specific to agriculture in more than just the agriculture sector. I think you need to broaden that out a bit and even locally [through] school boards … I think that's probably a good place to start,” he explained.

“On immigration, I don't disagree with that. But I think also we have to think of people that are already living in this country that perhaps can work that maybe don't have the right training.”

Orb went on to reference a previous attempt at an agricultural training program in Saskatchewan that was abandoned.

“The province at one time did have training for agriculture workers. They had some courses that were available. But unfortunately at that time, I'm going back probably about five years, there wasn't a lot of uptake in that program. So the province actually cancelled that,” he explained.

An “Agricultural Operator Program” pilot project was offered by Yorkton’s Parkland College between 2014 and 2015 but was cancelled after only 25 students participated, according to a 2017 Western Producer story.

Regardless, Orb said he believes training can still be done in Saskatchewan but it will have to be developed with the industry in mind.

“There might be other ways training could be achieved in this province.”

MOVING FORWARD THROUGH INNOVATION

RBC’s final growth focus was “an accelerated adoption of autonomous and mechanized solutions on farms.”

Both Orb and Welter agreed that mechanization has led to greater efficiencies for farm operators and an increased ability to cover more land annually.

However, like any aspect of the industry, it has its downsides.

With autonomous technology especially, concerns have been raised on how they will change the dynamics of the trade as well as overly centralize the agriculture industry.

“The advent of robotic farming brings about a more existential question,” Welter told CTV News.

“Do we feel comfortable allowing an increasingly concentrated percent of the population to control more of our food supply? I genuinely don't know what the right answer is. The other aspect of it is by increasing automation you are decreasing the number of people required to take care of the same amount of acres and then the question is what happens to your local small communities?”

The potential decline of population from the uptake of autonomous machinery is a concern for SARM as well.

However, Orb pointed out that even for autonomous machinery, there will need to be people in rural areas to support the operations.

“You have to have connectivity to be able to run that smarter machinery. You have to have services, you need to have medical care, [and] you need to have policing. There are lots of things on the social side that people need as well. So, that's kind of an ongoing struggle.”

Additionally, rising costs of inputs and machinery could act as roadblocks for new producers trying to enter the industry, Welter explained.

“I mean the reality is the economics of farming. They continue to become more complex and it does continue to become harder to justify the initial expense.” he said. “It's not just machinery it is the increased expense of inputs like fertilizer and some of the key components to the herbicides and pesticides that we use, as well as the availability.”

For Orb, there’s a role for government to help support research and innovation in Saskatchewan as well as across the country.

“The federal government has a really important role to make sure that that innovation is top of mind. I think there should be incentives in place for farmers to be able to do this, whether it be tax credits, or, or low-interest loans, for farmers to get into technology,” he said.

“But I think in the future, it's going to be a financial strain to some people to be able to keep up.”

FOR THE FUTURE

Within RBC’s report was some encouraging news for Saskatchewan agriculture.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of farms in Saskatchewan are declining at a slower rate than the rest of Canada.

In 2021, the total number of farms reported in Saskatchewan decreased by 1.1 per cent from 2016. By comparison, the number of farms reported across Canada decreased by 1.9 per cent over the same period.

There were 34,128 farms reported in Saskatchewan in 2021, accounting for 18.0 per cent of Canada’s total.

Orb believes this is telling of the strong family farming tradition in Saskatchewan.

“These are family farms that have been in their families for most cases over 100 years and so they mean something to those families and I think rightfully so,” he said.

“I think we're seeing a resurgence again, of younger people coming back to the farms and you can see that even when you go out and meet with RM counselors. A lot of younger counselors are getting into the municipal fields. Now they're interested in civil politics and so they're interested in farming and so that's a good fit.”

For Orb, the report shows a realistic picture of Saskatchewan’s future, and the issues the industry will face in the near future.

“I don't see the report from the RBC being negative at all,” he said.

“I think it's actually it shows us the future and I think we need to be able to look at that and keep an open mind on some of the changes that we're going to be seeing.”