The federal budget revealed significant gaps between the agriculture sector and government policy-makers, according to panelists at a recent webinar hosted by the Canadian Agri‑food Policy Institute (CAPI). Although the budget contains measures that affect farming and agri-food industries, the sense among participants was that many of these actions fall short of meeting the actual operational, trade, and risk-management concerns faced by farmers.

During the webinar, experts pointed out that while trade promotion and some risk-management boosts were included in this year’s fiscal plan, key structural aspects such as on-farm capital, labour challenges, and domestic market resilience were either overlooked or insufficiently addressed. The budget’s emphasis on export strategy and supply-chain enhancements was welcomed, but it did not fully connect with front-line agricultural producers wrestling with volatility in input costs, climate pressures, and market access hurdles.

Panelists affirmed that a disconnect persists in how policy-makers interpret the real-world conditions of primary producers versus the tools and programs delivered. For example, the lending policies and programming continue to focus heavily on established producers, leaving emerging operations and innovation-driven farms with fewer tailored options. The result is a sense among ag-industry stakeholders that although the budget signals recognition of the sector’s importance, there remains a substantial gulf between policy announcements and practical, on-ground realities.

Moving forward, the challenge will be translating broad macro-measures into finely-tuned programs that reflect regional diversity, farm type variation, and rapidly evolving risk profiles. This session underscored the need for ongoing dialogue between government, industry bodies, and farm operations so that budgets can better reflect the dynamic nature of agricultural production and trade.