Canada expands agricultural research with Germany

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has signed an agreement to boost agricultural research collaboration in four key areas as the recently approved Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement comes into force. Canadian and German researchers will increase their collaboration in the areas of sustainable agriculture and climate change (soil and water protection, crop breeding), agri-food (crop breeding and food waste reduction), best management practices (knowledge and technology transfer) and personnel exchange. Canada and Germany have long collaborated on agricultural research under an S&T agreement originally established in 1971. Current ag-based projects focus on crop genetics and diseases, agro-ecosystem resilience, horticulture, pork production and micro-organism collections. Canada exported $321 million in agri-food products in 2016, up from $262 million in 2015 when Canada imported $416 million in agri-food products from Germany.