P.E.I. needs to act quickly with new investment to pull its agriculture out of a vicious circle of decline, says the final report of the Commission on the Future of Agriculture and Agri-Food, released Thursday.

Farming on the Island has been struck by poor returns in recent years in most of its major sectors: potatoes, beef and hogs. Facing poor financial returns, farmers have responded by pushing the land harder to increase production.

That often results in environmental degradation, and from that comes a loss of community respect and support, meaning fewer young people developing an interest in farming.

While farming faces serious short-term problems, the commission focused on the long term. It laid out a plan calling for an investment of $2.5 million a year to implement a number of initiatives.

• Establishing market intelligence and new market development capacity.
• Developing a red meat strategy for the Atlantic region.
• Reviewing regional transportation infrastructure needs.
• Establishing the P.E.I. Agri-Food research cluster.
• Setting up an energy-from-biomass program.

The commission proposed specific economic and environmental goals to be achieved by 2015, including targets for GDP growth, pesticide reduction and an increase in farmers younger than 35.