Canada is one of the greatest agricultural nations on earth. Our farms produce canola, wheat, beef, seafood, and produce that feeds people across dozens of countries. Agriculture and agri-food exports hit $100 billion in 2024 — a historic milestone. The sector employs roughly one in eight Canadians.
And yet, if you are a young person who just graduated with an agriculture degree in this country, the system has almost nothing structured to offer you.
No formal bridge from education to entrepreneurship. No centralized resource hub. No mentorship pipeline. No on-ramp into farm ownership that doesn’t require either inheriting land or taking on debt that most 25-year-olds cannot sustain.
This is not a small problem. It is a structural crisis unfolding in slow motion, and the data makes it impossible to ignore.
The Numbers Tell a Stark Story
Between 2001 and 2021, Nova Scotia lost more than 1,200 farms — a drop from roughly 4,000 to 2,741. Farmland in the province declined by over 20% between 2016 and 2021 alone. Nova Scotia has the oldest average farm operator age in Canada, with more than two-thirds of operators aged 55 or older. Only 8% of those operators have a formal succession plan.
Nationally, Canada lost nearly 4,000 farms between 2016 and 2021. The trend is consistent: farms consolidate, operators age out, and not enough young people enter to replace them.
A study by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council projected that by 2029, there would not be enough domestic workers in Nova Scotia to fill more than one in every three jobs required for the agricultural sector to reach its production potential. The labour gap is not just a hiring problem — it is a succession and entrepreneurship problem.
Why Young Graduates Don't Enter
The conventional explanation is economic: farming is expensive, margins are thin, and young people can earn more in other sectors. This is partly true. But it is incomplete.
The deeper reason is that the pathway from “agriculture graduate” to “farm business owner” is genuinely opaque. Universities teach agronomy, soil science, crop systems, and food technology. They do not teach graduates how to register a farm business, apply for government grants, find input suppliers, build buyer relationships, or develop a financially viable farm business model.
The knowledge graduates carry out the door is real and valuable. The system to apply that knowledge is invisible. For graduates who are also newcomers to Canada — navigating a new country, without generational networks, without family farms to inherit — the invisibility is compounding.
Many simply give up and pivot to other careers. Canada loses trained agricultural minds it spent years and public money developing.
- Clear focus on nearby markets and logistics.
Courses are organized by crop type and difficulty level, such as “Leafy Greens for Beginners” or “Starter Herbs for Small Spaces.” After finishing, users receive certificates that give them credibility with buyers and personal confidence to price their produce fairly.
- Gradual adoption of better inputs, biostimulants, and irrigation.
The app calculates how much land or square footage is available and suggests how many pots or beds to use, expected yields, and estimated profit. Clear checklists show which tools, seeds, and inputs are needed, turning a confusing process into a simple plan.
- Direct relationships with buyers through online and offline channels.
Once crops are ready, farmpreneurs can list their produce directly in the marketplace, where buyers who posted their demand can accept quantities, set delivery times, and pay securely through the app. No need to negotiate in crowded markets or depend on middlemen.
- Continuous Support and Insights
Notifications remind farmpreneurs about watering, pest checks, and harvesting windows. Over time, the platform also shares insights about which crops performed best for them, helping them scale wisely.
What the System Actually Needs
The solutions are not complicated. They are just unbuilt.
Young graduates need a clear, step-by-step pathway from education to operation — not a PDF on a government website, but a guided, interactive, community-supported system that walks them through each stage of becoming a farmpreneur.
They need access to real market demand data before they plant anything — so the first question isn’t “what can I grow?” but “what do buyers in my region actually need, and at what volume?”
They need connections to verified input suppliers who serve small-scale operations, not just industrial farms. And they need to be in community with others at the same stage — because the isolation of starting something new in agriculture is one of the most underacknowledged barriers there is.
None of this requires changing policy, though better policy would help. It requires building infrastructure. Digital, community-driven, accessible infrastructure.
“We designed this platform with everyday women in mind—those who manage homes, care for families, and still dream of building something of their own. When learning, inputs, and customers all live in one app, starting a farming business becomes not just possible, but practical.”
Why This Matters Now
The timing has never been more urgent or more opportune simultaneously.
Nova Scotia’s government and the federal government through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have committed $46 million to the province under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership for 2023–2028, specifically targeting innovation and competitiveness. The Local Food Infrastructure Fund is actively funding community food projects. Programs like Plant Your Roots are designed to support new farm entrants.
The funding exists. The mandate exists. The need is acute and documented. What is missing is a platform that connects all of these pieces for the person standing at the beginning of the journey, unsure where to look.
That is what Yerin is being built to be.