Opinion letter
By Marilou Cyr, Director | Zone Agtech
If Quebec is said to be on a break that's far from being the case for Quebec's agriculture and agrifood agri-food industry, which is making unprecedented efforts to feed the Quebec's population. Agricultural producers, some armed with their children their children, have to rival each other in imagination to operate a farming season season that is anything but normal, with many issues at stake, including stringent and, for many, the unpredictable arrival of foreign workers. labor.
In times of crisis, the reflex is to and operate as "as usual" as possible. But, as the saying goes as the saying goes, exceptional situations call for exceptional measures.
In Quebec, our food security vulnerability of our food security. But while the focus is on the arrival of temporary foreign workers (TFWs), here's an important question to ask, one we can no longer avoid: will we ever be able one day be self-sufficient in food while remaining dependent on the workforce, let alone a foreign one? The answer is is no. Not in 2020, not in the context of the labor shortage that was and will most certainly remain so in the future.
Until recently, experts were talking about planetary food security challenges for 2030-2040, but this reality is hitting us today, 10 to 20 years ahead of schedule. The COVID-19 crisis is, therefore, an opportunity that we must seize to to anticipate the transformation of the agricultural sector towards a high-performance but also more innovative and sustainable. Autonomous electric robot, precision farming, artificial lighting and controlled environment reproduction to grow crops in winter and summer must play a greater role in our agricultural agriculture.
Quebec promoters of innovative innovative agricultural technologies (agtech) have joined forces in an unprecedented unprecedented initiative, led by Zone Agtech, to support agricultural agricultural producers in this time of crisis, and in anticipation of the post-covid phase. Concrete solutions are proposed to increase farm yields and reduce hiring needs. They come from companies such as U2Grow 365, LBM-Agtech, ÉAU, Ulysse Biotechnologies, Chrysalabs, Agrilog, Systèmes Vireo, Earth Alive clean technologies and Nectar.
Innovative agricultural technologies are an important - if not vital - part of the stimulus plan for tomorrow's for the development of tomorrow's agriculture.
Against this backdrop, we need to collectively redouble our efforts and deploy accelerated resources to support innovative agtech companies and agricultural producers in this necessary shift, in order to increase the sector's profitability, performance, autonomy and sustainability, and achieve greater food security and sovereignty.
Marilou Cyr
Director, Zone Agtech
