Canada's federal government will go ahead with its plan to close seven agricultural research farms across the country, despite a House of Commons committee report recommending against the closures.

"Closure of the Research and Development Centres will be phased and carefully managed," Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Heath MacDonald wrote in a 16 September response to Michael Coteau, chair of the House agriculture committee. The committee's bipartisan report, Science in Canadian Agriculture and the Closure of Research Centres, released in May, made 20 recommendations, including reconsidering the site closures, treating agriculture as a national-security issue and planning for affected research to continue elsewhere.

MacDonald said Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) will remain the country's largest agricultural research organisation, with 17 research centres and associated farmland, and that every province will keep at least one AAFC research centre.

Conservative MPs attacked the decision. Blaine Calkins, MP for Ponoka-Didsbury, said on 24 September that the government was closing research centres that had made important contributions to Canadian agriculture, innovation and food security, while the party's agriculture critics John Barlow and Jacques Gourde said the closures would destroy decades of research that led to breakthroughs such as minimal till, canola and precision agriculture.

In a joint statement on 22 September, the Agriculture Union, which represents about 7,000 AAFC and Canadian Food Inspection Agency employees, and the National Farmers Union urged the government to reconsider. Union president Milton Dyck said the farms and equipment still exist, and that at the Nappan and Lacombe research farms the livestock are still there.

The government announced in January that it would close seven research sites and eliminate 665 positions.

The report was written by Diego Flammini for Farms.com.

Photo: Onasill ~ Bill / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source: Farms.com