Alberta federation warns cuts to federal farm research will hollow out prairie science for years

The Alberta Federation of Agriculture has issued a forceful critique of recent federal decisions that will reduce staff and capacity within Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The measures, approved through an expenditure review, include the elimination of roughly 665 positions, notifications affecting about 1,050 employees, and the closure or downsizing of seven research locations that support crop, livestock and soils work. Western prairie stations — including research hubs focused on wheat, pulses, livestock and soil conservation — are highlighted as particularly exposed because their experiments and breeding programs are tailored to regional climates and cannot be quickly replicated elsewhere. The federation frames these actions as short-sighted fiscal savings that transfer future costs onto producers and the wider economy by slowing genetic improvement, increasing vulnerability to pests and diseases, and raising the likelihood of yield shocks. Public research in plant breeding and production systems generates long-tail benefits; losing continuity in long-term trials and specialist personnel risks erasing decades of accumulated value. Comparisons were drawn to other national research programs that continue or expand funding as a deliberate economic and strategic investment, underlining that Canada’s move is an outlier among trading competitors. The announcement has no publicly released, program-level cost-benefit analysis or regional impact assessment to justify the cuts in scientific or agricultural terms, according to the federation. That absence increases the political and operational uncertainty facing producers who rely on predictable breeding timelines and disease-monitoring services. The federation is calling for an immediate halt to layoffs, transparent disclosure of exactly which programs will be reduced, and direct engagement with prairie producers to protect remaining research pipelines. If left unaddressed, the federation warns, the effect will compound: short-term budget reductions will convert into long-term productivity declines, reduced export reliability and greater exposure to climate shocks. The federation predicts that the most pronounced consequences will become visible over a multi-year horizon — in reduced yield growth, slower adoption of resilient varieties, and higher costs for disease management — rather than within a single fiscal cycle. Restoring lost capacity later would require substantial new investment and would likely fail to recover all genetic materials, institutional knowledge, and experimental continuity that will be lost.