Research conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Pork shows investments in swine sector research provide a substantial benefit to the Canadian economy and are critical to the competitiveness and economic sustainability of pork production in Canada. The findings of an impact assessment, "Research to Results-Measuring the Impact of Pork Research in Canada," was the topic of a national webinar hosted last week by Swine Innovation Porc.
Dr. Peter Phillips, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus with the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan, says the team was asked to provide observations about the direction and impact of swine sector research coordinated by Swine Innovation Porc.
Quote-Dr. Peter Phillips-University of Saskatchewan:
If there's three numbers you walk away with, 50 million is the aggregate investments in the first 13 years, 14 years of the investments. There are another 20 million that are underway and we have not assessed those yet. The aggregate return to the national economy is about a quarter of a billion dollars. That's a substantial part and a significant contribution to agriculture and the ROI (return on investment) is about 30 percent on your investments.
The pork sector is quite vibrant. It's had good growth. It's quite an export driven sector. In that sense it makes it an important part of any regional or national conversation about where agriculture fits into the future economy of Canada.It's important because it's one of the natural products that we have created and built a comparative advantage to compete against other producers around the world and it's vital that we have research that underpins that. It's sort of the basis for productivity gains and productivity gains in this sector relative to many other sectors in the Canadian economy have been quite strong.
The agrifood industry at large is running between two and a half and three percent per annum productivity gains, which is important for competing against foreigners but it's as or more important for competing against other domestic uses for your land, labor and capital.
If you can't remain competitive and producing product with profit, workers, capital from other areas and land itself will be bid away for other uses that are not agricultural.
For further information on the report, Research to Results-Measuring the Impact of Pork Research in Canada, visit swineinnovationporc.ca.
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Source : Farmscape.ca