Federal and provincial investments drive innovation for farmers

June 30, 2009

Carman, Manitoba, June 30, 2009 - The Governments of Canada and Manitoba are partnering to invest $39 million to drive innovation for farm families in Manitoba. The announcement was made today in Carmen by Vic Toews, federal Treasury Board President, and Rosann Wowchuk, Manitoba Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives. The fund is cost shared with $19.77 million from Manitoba and $19.48 million from the federal government over five years.

"Farmers are always looking for new and better ways to give Canadian agriculture a competitive edge and these investments are going to drive that innovation," said Minister Toews. "These investments are giving Manitoba farmers access to new technologies and markets to keep our agricultural sector strong."

The Innovation Fund supports projects that create and develop new methods, products and technology that will improve Manitoba's competitive edge in the agriculture sector.

"Manitoba's agriculture sector succeeds on so many fronts today because of the innovative spirit of our agricultural producers and processors," said Minister Wowchuk. "By encouraging diversity and adaptation to environmental, production and market challenges, we have established an industry with a reputation for quality and competitiveness, and this needs to continue if we are to meet changing local and global market demands."

Innovation Funding will be channeled to projects submitted through two funding avenues: the Industry Innovation Suite that supports investment in innovative projects brought forward by participants in the sector, and the Strategic Innovation Suite that supports investment in strategically important initiatives brokered by the province among government and industry stakeholders.

Programs covered by the Industry Innovation Suite include: the existing Agri-food Research and Development Initiative (ARDI), Farm Diversification and Innovation Centres and Manitoba Agri-Innovation Suite program and the new Agri-Extension Innovation program.

Programs covered by the Strategic Innovation Suite include the Advancing Agri-Innovation program, the Strategic Innovation Grants to the University of Manitoba and the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI).

Nationally, the federal and provincial governments are investing $1.3 billion over five years to Growing Forward programs. The funding represents $330 million more than the Agricultural Policy Framework (APF) and will be cost-shared between the federal, provincial and territorial governments on a 60:40 basis.

For further information on Growing Forward programs, ask a client service representative at any GO Centre throughout the province or go on-line to www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/.