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There are “endless” opportunities for Indigenous-led agriculture projects in Canada that could strengthen the entire sector while also advancing Canada’s goals for reconciliation, food security and economic prosperity.
However, these opportunities can only be realized — while driving sustainable and lasting progress for all stakeholders — if the approach is rooted in strong relationships between Indigenous communities and partners.
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This was the main message during a session at the Indigenous Ag Summit, part of Canadian Western Agribition programming in Regina Nov. 27.
WHY IT MATTERS: Economic reconciliation has been a major part of the reconciliation conversation when it comes to Indigenous participation and relationships with agriculture.
“It’s all about relationship. It really is,” said Kallie Wood, president and chief executive officer of the National Circle for Indigenous Agriculture and Food (NCIAF), a non-profit organization aiming to strengthen Indigenous participation in Canada’s agriculture and food sectors.
The NCIAF approach is unique from that of other government-led Indigenous agriculture-related initiatives, Wood says, in that it is focused on building capacity from the ground up in the communities it serves and assessing needs of each unique community on a case-by-case basis.
For example, one project in the Ochapowace First Nation, based in southern Saskatchewan, was originally proposed as a greenhouse. After NCIAF representatives engaged with the community to assess excitement and readiness, the project was revised, said Chris McAfee, NCIAF’s senior vice-president for business development.
“We scaled it back. We went in and got a community garden going. We got volunteers involved. We have elders involved. We have youth involved. You get their hands back in the dirt. You get them excited.”
Bringing in community
This approach drove community engagement and began driving hands-on experience and education, a critical first step for any project to be self-sustaining, says McAfee.
“The outcome from funding and grants … is this beautiful infrastructure or massive project or huge cattle herd. But if you don’t have the pipeline of the youth and everyone involved in the community to do that, you’ve got a really sweet project for a year, year and a half and then you’ve just got a whole lot of infrastructure because we didn’t take the time to build those supports.”
He says in the case of the community garden, it’s about setting a foundation to then scale up to projects that can have an economic impact.
“The plants are still there when the pipeline is built to scale it up to the greenhouse, to processing, to those other things. But this is where it starts.”
Birth of an initiative
NCIAF was launched in 2024, with an initial goal of a $1.5 billion boost in primary agriculture and a commitment of $1 million in funding annually from Farm Credit Canada.
Since its inception, the NCIAF has launched 64 projects across Canada, ranging from initiatives focused on food security, business development, export readiness, land-based education and economic diversification, says Wood, who was previously a senior Indigenous adviser with Saskatchewan Agriculture.
And there are ample opportunities to do more.
She says communities continue to reach out for help navigating government programs, building partnerships and identifying sustainable agricultural paths connected to their land and culture, particularly in the northern part of the province, where food security is a constant concern.
“The phone calls that are coming in, and the questions … it’s endless,” she said.
Wood said she had just had a conversation with an Indigenous chief at the Agriibition event who came to her and said, ‘we’ve got all this land, we have the opportunity, we have the capacity, we have the capital — we need to know where to start.’ ”
Looking to the future
Going forward, Wood says there are plans to quantify the opportunities available and to track progress.
“We have a long way to go.”
But in the meantime, she hopes that the agriculture sector will embrace these types of projects, helping NCIAF better bridge the worlds between western science and Indigenous agricultural experience and knowledge in order to drive economic empowerment for Indigenous communities and all Canadians.
“The eagle has a right wing and a left wing; you need to have the two in order to fly,” she says.
“We really are trying to bring it together.”
