OMAFA's Research Priorities

Goals

• Grow the overall agri-food sector by expanding access in domestic and international markets.
• Improve the economic performance of identified priority sub-sectors.
• Support the production of niche and/or value-add products that have a high potential for growth.

Research Focus Area

• Domestic Market Analysis: Research, data, and analysis to support Ontario’s agribusiness and the agri-food sector to remain competitive in domestic markets in response to change and challenges.
• Global Market Analysis: Research, data, and analysis to support Ontario’s agribusiness and the agri-food sector to remain competitive in global markets in response to change and challenges.
• Targeted Sector Growth: Identify (in partnership with industry stakeholders), investigate and research opportunities to address targeted sector growth opportunities that will remove key barriers and improve competitiveness of sectors that are strategically identified for growth in the agriculture and food sectors.
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

Goals

Improve the efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of production systems through technology adoption and innovation such as:

• Labour-saving technology or practices
• Automation
• Waste reduction
• Recycling
• Increased water/energy efficiency
• Establishing basic agronomic practices for new cultivars and new production systems (e.g., cultivar evaluation, evaluating survival in challenging environments, establishing fertility guidelines, irrigation requirements, planting dates and methods, etc.
• Assess the economic viability of growing a new crop in Ontario by analyzing factors such as market demand, production costs & profitability, and climate suitability.

Research Focus Areas

• Improved Management and Processes: e.g., crop and livestock productions systems that improve yields and quality through agronomy, production practices, decision making, genetic methods, efficient fertilizer use, season extension technologies.
• Input Use Efficiency: Input use efficiency (e.g., alternative feeds, feed efficiency, automation in horticulture; irrigation efficiency in greenhouse, reproductive performance, food processing resource efficiency).
• Labour Access/Efficiencies: Research and evidence to support the development of strategies to ensure that the economic growth and sustainability of the agribusiness and agri-food sector is supported by adequate access to labour and/or labour efficiencies.
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

Goal

• Enhance the competitiveness, profitability, and growth of the agri-food sector through new or improved products.

Research Focus Areas

• New Product Development: Investigate new products (physical products, services, or processes) to improve marketability and profitability, meet consumer demands, and enhance productivity in the sector, from concept to prototype (e.g., alternative proteins, foods of the future, new crops, bioproducts) and testing (concept testing, usability, functional and performance testing, etc.).
• Product Enhancement: Investigate means of enhancing products including management practices, product trait development, new technology development and validation.
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

Goal

• Enhance the competitiveness, resilience and economic growth of rural communities.

Research Focus Area

• Impacts of Worldwide Transformations on Local and Regional Ontario Economies: Research to strengthen our understanding of how local rural and regional Ontario economies are shaped by ‘megatrends’ such as demographic shifts/immigration, technological disruptions, geopolitical conflict, trade volatility and climate change; and how rural communities and businesses are adapting to these changes, with a focus on:
  • Local/regional resilience to global supply-chain shocks
  • Strategies for navigating trade volatility and economic fragmentation
  • Current status, economic impact and local responses to demographic shifts and changing migration flows, including remote-work migration
  • Services required for changing demographics.
• Workforce: Research to strengthen our understanding of challenges and opportunities related to demographic changes (including pandemic-induced migration, return to office mandates, aging population), skill shortages, and artificial intelligence disruption/transformation that is impacting the rural workforce. With a focus on:
  • Strategies to attract and retain workers to small and rural communities
  • AI’s impact on rural labour markets and training needs
  • Effectiveness of remote/hybrid work options for attracting workers to rural communities/rural businesses
• Capacity-Building: Rural and small communities are facing fiscal, human resource and knowledge capacity issues, as well as service delivery constraints. Research to strengthen our understanding of how communities are addressing these issues, including:
  • What kind and to what extent communities are using of shared-service or collaboration models
  • What organizational structures and kinds of support are communities employing in terms of economic development activities/efforts to strengthen and grow their tax base/revenue streams in rural and small communities. Are there overlaps across communities/regions? What is the optimum model?
  • What capacity-building tools/supports are needed? What is the gap that needs to be addressed?
  • What rural community-Indigenous collaborations exist in Ontario? Are these relationships growing and of mutual benefit?
  • How are placed-based approaches being utilized to support capacity building?
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

Goals

• Improved productive capacity of farmland through enhanced soil health and the sustainable use of land to improve and/or maintain resilient, connected, agri-ecosystems.

Research Focus Area

• Baseline soil health information: Improved understanding of baseline soil health information (i.e., relationship between physical, chemical, and biological components) and development of robust and measurable soil health indicators.
• Nutrient Recommendation Methodologies: Update the underlying research methodologies and approaches that establish how soil tests are used along with economic and management factors to recommend nutrient application rates.
• Economic Benefits of Soil Health: Improved understanding of the economic benefits of soil health and conservation practices in an Ontario context
• Analysis of BMP Adoption: Analysis of BMP Adoption to better understand the behavioural, social, and economic barriers or incentives to BMP adoption, including framing/messaging to have more influence on adoption of BMP adoption.
• Improved Practices & Technologies: Development and validation, of improved practices and technologies to support soil health, enhance soil structure, fertility and biodiversity, sustainable soil management practices and to estimate/calculate the economic value of BMPs.
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

Goals

• Strengthen the sustainability of the agri-food sector through the reduced loss of agricultural inputs into the environment, supporting improved input use efficiency, enhanced water quality and better management of water resources.

Research Focus Areas

• Environmental Impact of Management Practices: Improved understanding of environmental impacts of fertilizer use, nutrient management, green infrastructure, and integrated pest management on water quality.
• Validation of New Technologies: (e.g. slow-release fertilizers, inoculant, soil additives, monitoring tools) that minimize nutrient losses to water or atmosphere during storage or when applied to land.
• Effectiveness of BMPs: Improved understanding of the effectiveness of BMPs to support reduced loss, agricultural waste water treatment, and other methods to improve water quality (e.g., green infrastructure) including evaluating performance, cost-effectiveness, and barriers to adoption.
• Manure Management Decision Making: Improved understanding of current manure management practices in Ontario including decision making factors and data on manure application.
• Impact of Waste or Contaminants: Improved understanding of the impact of waste or contaminants (e.g., plastics, residues of environmental or human health concerns) that may be associated with agri-food activities and assessment of solutions to reduce their transmission to the environment.
• Water Quantity Challenges: Improved understanding of sector water quantity challenges and solutions, including water needs vs. local availability/access.
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

Goals

Strengthen the sustainability of the agri-food sector, including capacity to respond to a changing climate, through:

• The sustainable use of the land to improve and/or maintain resilient, connected, agri-ecosystems,
• A more circular and resource efficient value chain (e.g., Increased waste/energy efficiency, recovery, and reuse, upcycling, 4R Nutrient Stewardship, and bioproducts)
• Increased GHG reductions and sequestration
• Increased understanding of sustainability drivers (e.g., certifications, assurance schemes, profitability, social/behavioural drivers)

Research Focus Areas

• Analysis of BMP Adoption: Understand the behavioural, social, and economic barriers or incentives to BMP adoption by the agri-food sector and calculate economic value of BMPs.
• BMP Development: Develop, validate, and continuously improve practices and technologies to support sustainable agri-food production and processing systems.
• Environmental Impacts of Management Practices and Production (i.e. impacts of: fertilizer use, nutrient management, integrated pest management, green infrastructure etc. on ecosystems, biodiversity, wetlands, climate resiliency etc.).
• GHG Reductions and carbon storage: Research to improve our understanding of adopting or scaling-up GHG reducing BMPs and technologies (e.g. feed additives, fuel switching, carbon capture storage and utilization), improve BMP effectiveness, and develop cost-effective methods for measuring and verifying GHG emissions and carbon storage.
• Circular Economy: Develop and validate effective circular practices, products and models to economically reuse and/or upcycle resources (e.g., residuals, by-products).
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

Goal

• Develop and implement land use policies that support the agricultural system.

Research Focus Area

• Evidence to support land use policies: Document evidence to inform agriculturally – responsive land use policies.
• Effectiveness of land use policies: Evaluate the effectiveness of land use policies and other tools to protect the agricultural system, including agricultural land and farm operations.
• Methodologies for Farmland Measurement: Summarize and compare the various methods for measuring farmland (e.g., area, capability and health) to report on the state of the resource and develop an approach to assess Ontario’s current and future farmland needs.
• One of the Cross-cutting Focus Areas (listed below) that contributes directly to meeting the goal(s) of the priority.

• Indigenous agriculture and agri-food systems: Develop a research project to address key needs, challenges, or emerging opportunities in support of Indigenous agriculture and food production systems in Ontario. Project proposals must abide by the six R’s of Indigenous Research and the First Nations’ Principles of OCAP^® (ownership, control, access, and possession).
• Innovative and Disruptive Technologies and Practices: Identification verification, validation, demonstration and adoption of new, innovative, and disruptive technologies and practices to support a resilient, secure and sustainable agriculture and food sector.
• Multi-disciplinary Research to Address Integrated Priorities: Multi-disciplinary collaborations to address complex needs: Research that includes multiple disciplines where goals are set under one thematic umbrella with demonstrable alignment to industry and/or OMAFA priorities.
• Climate Change Resiliency: Understand risks and mitigation strategies to support an agriculture, food sector and rural communities that are resilient and adaptive to climate change.
• One Health opportunities: One Health is a collaborative, multi-sectoral approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health to lead to solutions that include more resilient and biodiverse healthy systems, reduced numbers and severity of zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks, improved food safety and security, and to manage population growth more sustainably.
• Measuring Performance: Measure performance through baseline information, trend and gap analysis, impact assessment, and BMP adoption to quantify and benchmark performance.
• Emergency Management: Developing and implementing strategies and protocols to enhance preparedness, response, and resilience to emergencies in the sector. This includes managing risks associated with issues such as food-borne illness, disease outbreaks, natural disasters, agribusiness, and supply chain disruptions to ensure the safety and stability of the food production system.
• Promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, and finding solutions to issues faced by equity-seeking groups.