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Canada must accelerate investment in agriculture technology and address its growing farm labour shortage or risk being left behind, a new report by the Royal Bank of Canada warns.

The report, released Wednesday, says Canada’s agricultural GDP has the potential to reach $51 billion by 2030, a valuation that puts it ahead of the automobile assembly and aeronautics industries combined.

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However, the report said agriculture will not hit that target if it continues on its current path of declining productivity. While Canada consistently ranks as the world’s fifth-largest global exporter of agricultural products, our share of global agriculture exports has fallen since 2000 in the face of growing competition from developing nations such as China, India, Indonesia and Brazil. If current trends continue, Canada’s agriculture industry could grow by only 1.8 per cent annually, raising output in 2030 to just $40 billion compared to $32 billion today.