2023-06-25 19:29:00
Agricultural land has been in significant decline for decades in all Canadian provinces, according to the Census of Agriculture conducted by Statistics Canada.
The area of agricultural land in Canada has increased from 68 million hectares in 2001 to 62 million in 2021.
The country has thus lost, in 20 years, the equivalent of 7 small farms every day, indicates the federal agency, noting that a lot of agricultural land has been converted into urban areas.
Statistics Canada reports comparing data from 1971 to 2011 show that approximately 642,100 hectares of farmland have disappeared around major metropolitan areas in Canada.
The finding is obvious in the Ontario region, where we find the greatest number of hectares of agricultural land converted into urban areas.
The number of farms declined by 23% in Canada between 2001 and 2021, but farms that remain active have increased in area, from an average of 274 hectares in 2001 to an average of 327 hectares in 2021.
And that’s mostly because arable land is increasingly concentrated in the hands of big agribusiness, according to the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives.
This concentration is higher in the Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta), where 70% of the country’s agricultural land is located.
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