Cesar Humberto Suchite de Paz, left, and Juan Alberto Toto Sapo pack cucumbers at Mucci Farms in Kingsville, Ont. on June 24.Geoff Robins/The Globe and Mail
At Mucci Farms, headquartered in the Windsor area on the shores of Lake Erie, growing vegetables is a remarkably high-tech operation.
In the greenhouse, which is larger than 200 football fields, crews of pickers harvest while robots sort and package red, yellow and orange bell peppers that are ripened using irrigation and temperature systems controlled by artificial intelligence.
The growing industry has for many years experienced a shortage of low-skilled farm labour, but with more Canadian food producers transitioning to high-tech methods, the sector is also seeing a critical shortage of skilled labour.
“There’s this outdated perception of farming as something old-fashioned,” said Bert Mucci, chief executive officer of Mucci Farms and son of one of the two Italian brothers who started the company in the 1960s when they moved to Kingsville, Ont., southeast of Windsor.
“When we were kids, everything was done manually by hand,” Mr. Mucci said. “These days, so much of what we do can be controlled by an app on my phone.”
Workers pick tomatoes in a greenhouse at Mucci Farms.Geoff Robins/The Globe and Mail
With its plentiful sunshine, rich soil and warmer temperatures, Southwestern Ontario’s Essex County, situated around Windsor, is the location of North America’s most concentrated greenhouse sector: Around 130 growers pump out more than 500,000 tonnes of produce annually.
Farmers can boost yields with the precision agriculture of greenhouses, which produce around 8.5 times more vegetables per area of land compared to field production.
And Canada is one of the most efficient producers worldwide. The greenhouse growers of Southern Ontario raise more per area of land than any other global greenhouse heavyweight, including the Netherlands, Spain and Mexico.
At Mr. Mucci’s 150-acre greenhouse, hundreds of hidden sensors constantly measure temperature, humidity and sunlight. The data is fed back to AI software that helps growers adjust conditions by changing irrigation, blinds and lighting.
Above: Flats of tomatoes sit on an automated trolley in a greenhouse at Mucci Farms. Below: Tomatoes ripen on the vine at Mucci Farms.
Geoff Robins/The Globe and Mail
Access to high-skilled labour is a continuing frustration, Mr. Mucci said. Producers need experts in information technology, finance, marketing, logistics and sales. But above all, they need growers who can run extensive operations. A typical grower will oversee 100 acres of vegetables. Pay is in the six figures, before incentives and production bonuses, Mr. Mucci said.
A recent Royal Bank of Canada report said Canada has one of the worst skills crises compared to other major food-exporting countries. The country has the land, water and market access to stay ahead in a race that could bring gains of $11-billion a year to the economy, according to RBC. That would make agriculture’s contribution to gross domestic product larger than that of automobiles and aeronautics combined.
The country is a leader in what the RBC report called “the fourth agricultural revolution.” Instead of being propelled by diesel and engineered seeds, this next transformation is being driven by high-tech innovation and data. And Canada has the physical resources, alongside a well-funded and established education system, to surpass rivals.
Yet Canada’s share of global agricultural exports is falling, as countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Brazil produce and sell more. Our country’s productivity is also stalling, with RBC forecasting that the sector will grow by just 1.8 per cent a year compared to the 10-year annual average of 3 per cent. The number of operators below age 55 has also declined by 54 per cent since 2001, according to RBC.
Mynor Andres Diaz Garcia packs cucumbers.Geoff Robins/The Globe and Mail
Hazel Farms Group is a greenhouse operation with around 200 acres in Essex County’s Leamington, southeast of Windsor. Like Mucci Farms, it also lacks growers and other highly skilled workers such as engineers and roboticists.
“It’s one of the hardest areas to grow,” said Jamie Lefaive, general manager at Hazel Farms group, adding that working in a greenhouse requires a knowledge of farming and technological know-how. “Most of the people who are good we get them at a young age. They’re homegrown.”
Staying ahead in the global food production race takes effort on the part of agriculture schools, said Lisa Ashton, agriculture policy lead at RBC.
Programs need to evolve to meet the demands of farming today. No full-time MBA program in Canada’s top 10 business schools offers elective courses in agribusiness, and agricultural schools typically don’t offer classes that integrate farming with engineering and social sciences.
But Ms. Ashton said change is coming on that front. This year, the University of Guelph launched an AI and food program. The initiative came from the university’s college of engineering and physical sciences.
A worker inspects cucumber plants at Mucci Farms.Geoff Robins/The Globe and Mail
Ms. Ashton said the shortage of labour also reflects a more substantive change in Canada’s demographics. “The urban and rural divide is widening,” she said, adding that rural areas are growing 15 times slower than urban ones, according to Statistics Canada.
Mr. Mucci hopes high salaries, a lower cost of living and an innovative, expanding industry will attract talent that will accelerate the pace of innovation.
He recognizes that geography is a significant hurdle. Not only is agriculture out of sight (and therefore out of mind) as a career option, the lifestyle it offers to young graduates is different.
“Young people want to be where the action is,” he said. “Being in a small community makes relocating a hard sell.”