(Toronto) Nutrien big boss Ken Seitz says Canada is poised to play a big role in global food production as climate change makes farming more difficult and the global food supply chain is weakened by political and economic uncertainty.

Mr. Seitz made the remarks at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto.

According to him, climate change is redrawing the map of global food production and Canada has an opportunity to be a key player in the fight against food insecurity.

The world faces a dual problem, Seitz said. “To feed a rapidly growing world, we will need to produce more food, and we will need to do so in a sustainable way. »

Nutrien is the world’s third largest producer of nitrogen and the largest producer of potash, two of the three main plant nutrients used in commercial fertilizers.

The Saskatoon-based company has six potash mines in Saskatchewan with a capacity of over 20 million tonnes, as well as two major phosphate mines in the United States.

In Canada and around the world, climate change is making agriculture, an already unpredictable business, even more volatile, Seitz said.

“Here in Canada, growers are experiencing wetter springs, hotter and drier summers, which limits our irrigation and our water, and all those resources that we have to manage,” he said.

Mr. Seitz noted that farmers need support in the form of incentives so that they can adopt technology and new practices to farm more sustainably. Risk is a major hurdle for farmers, he argued, since they already face growing uncertainty and manage thin margins.

In 2021, Nutrien launched a new pilot project aimed at helping farmers reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, capture and store carbon and measure their improvements, as well as making it easier to buy and sell carbon credits.