Rural Development Institute

This book investigates the role of wealth in achieving sustainable rural economic development. The authors define wealth as all assets net of liabilities that can contribute to well-being, and they provide examples of many forms of capital - physical, financial, human, natural, social, and others. They propose a conceptual framework for rural wealth creation that considers how multiple forms of wealth provide opportunities for rural development, and how development strategies affect the dynamics of wealth. They also provide a new accounting framework for measuring wealth stocks and flows. These conceptual frameworks are employed in case study chapters on measuring rural wealth and on rural wealth creation strategies. Rural Wealth Creation makes numerous contributions to research on sustainable rural development. Important distinctions are drawn to help guide wealth measurement, such as the difference between the wealth located within a region and the wealth owned by residents of a region, and privately owned versus publicly owned wealth. Case study chapters illustrate these distinctions and demonstrate how different forms of wealth can be measured. Several key hypotheses are proposed about the process of rural wealth creation, and these are investigated by case study chapters assessing common rural development strategies, such as promoting rural energy industries and amenity-based development. Based on these case studies, a typology of rural wealth creation strategies is proposed and an approach to mapping the potential of such strategies in different contexts is demonstrated. This book will be relevant to students, researchers, and policy makers looking at rural community development, sustainable economic development, and wealth measurement.

This applied research is examining individual investment options to assess farm-level and regional-level impacts of farmers’ technical choices during periods of insufficient and excess (i.e., extreme) moisture using a cost benefit framework. The RDI project team is joined with experts from the Universities of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Funding from the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association and the Manitoba Agricultural Partnership is making this two year project a possibility.

Five Reasons for Abandoning Traditional Economic Performance Indicators: Population growth tells us nothing directly about the changing prosperity of residents;
Employment growth does not consider the quality of jobs and ignores the role of capital income;
The unemployment rate ignores those who drop out of the labor force or migrate during economic downturns (a particularly big issue for rural areas);
GDP ignores the depreciation and degradation of our productive capital; and
GDP ignores most intangible and non-market costs and benefits.

Northern Manitoba has a 10,000-year legacy of adventure and trade. It is a place where canoe and sled still run, where story and tradition is alive, where people’s lives and livelihoods depend on working with, not against, Mother Nature.

With 67% of Manitoba’s land area and 6% of its population, northern Manitoba has been a long term net contributor to the economic prosperity of all Manitoba, as the source of some of the province’s richest natural resources and tourism icons.

In northern Manitoba, 73% of the population self identifies as Indigenous and 52% of the population lives on a First Nation. And yet, little is known about how and how much Indigenous people are contributing to the economy of the North and to all of Manitoba.

The aim of this report is to assess the economic impact of leafy spurge in the province, with a focus on southern Manitoba. The acreage of leafy spurge was based on geographic land use information, existing databases on known spurge infestation and consultation with weed supervisors and technical experts. In addition to presenting a map showing the potential distribution of leafy spurge in southern Manitoba, the report also provides a brief overview of the invasion process with a focus on identifying the economic factors which cause the spread of invasive species. Calculations for direct costs were based primarily on the value of lost grazing capacity of pastures, and indirect costs were calculated using an animal production input-output multiplier of 2.36.

This paper reports on the food processing sector and builds on previous research efforts by the Rural Development Institute in terms of better understanding innovation (Ashton, et al. 2016). While this sector has a well documented history that includes innovation, we set out to contribute to a very specific knowledge gap. One that reveals the anatomy of innovation based on the actual experiences of successful innovators. In particular, we focus on innovators who have taken unique paths to translate their ideas into sales. After a review of the literature on innovation and innovation in the food processing sector, the research design and methods are discussed. This is followed by findings, discussion, and conclusions.