Ag part of upcoming Canadian trade mission to India

May 16, 2023

Lentils topped Canada’s ag exports to India in 2021

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Canada and India’s trade representatives will include agriculture in their discussions when they meet later this year.

At the end of the sixth Canada-India Ministerial Dialogue on Trade & Investment, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng and Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal committed to discussing agriculture in October, when Minister Ng leads a trade mission to India.

The ministers agreed to “forging partnerships to take advantage of the complementarities in such sectors as agricultural goods, chemicals, green technologies, infrastructure, automotive, clean energy, electronics, and minerals and metals,” a May 10 readout says.

Canada and India currently do not have a bilateral trade agreement.

The two countries began negotiations in 2010. Those talks ended in 2017.

Since 2022, India and Canada have been negotiating an Early Progress Trade Agreement.

This kind of agreement pertains to specific sectors. The one between Canada and India includes agriculture.

Minister Ng is confident it’s “not going to be years” before Canada and India sign some sort of agreement, she said on May 8, The Canadian Press reported..

India was Canada’s 18^th largest market for agri-food and seafood products in 2021.

That year, Canda exported $546.3 million of agri-food and seafood goods, good for about 1.4 per cent of India’s market share.

The top Canadian ag exports to India that year were:

Lentils - $510.4 million
Solid lactose and lactose syrup - $6.8 million
Almonds - $6.7 million

Video: Winter Canola Trial in Mississippi | Can It Work for Double Cropping? | Pioneer Agronomy

Can winter canola open new opportunities for growers in the Mid-South? In this agronomy update from Noxubee County, Mississippi, Pioneer agronomist Gus Eifling shares an early look at a first-year winter canola trial and what farmers are learning from the field.

Planted in late October on 30-inch rows, the crop is now entering the bloom stage and progressing quickly. In this video, we walk through current field conditions, fertility management, and how timing could make this crop a valuable option for double-cropping soybeans or cotton.

If harvest timing lines up with early May, growers may be able to transition directly into another crop during ideal planting windows. Ongoing field trials will help determine whether canola could become a viable rotational option for the region.

Watch for:

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Fertility strategy, including nitrogen and sulfur applications

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As more growers look for ways to maximize acres and diversify rotations, experiments like this help determine what new crops might fit into existing systems.