The first Canadian conference on agri-food and rural advisory, extension, and education (CAREE) will be held at the University of Guelph, 29-31 October 2025. The conference theme is extension 4.0: disruption and transformation in agri-food and rural development. It highlights the growing recognition of the Canadian approach to agri-food development. The conference addresses an overarching scholarly and policy discussion, both globally and regionally, that has long been captivated by a compelling question: Does Canada have an effective agri-food and rural extension and advisory service? While Canada has a strong legacy of success in crop production, livestock management, environmental stewardship, and rural support, there remains a noticeable gap in this area. We invite submissions on the following topics from diverse sectors, including crops, livestock, the environment, and rural development, as well as from provincial, federal, regional, and global perspectives. We welcome various types of presentations, including research abstracts, posters, roundtables, and professional development sessions, aimed at fostering collaboration and learning among academia, policymakers, and practitioners.

Topic 1: Policy, approaches, trends and evidence-based action

Topic 3: Indigenous and Northern development, gender, social inclusion, and well-being of agricultural and rural communities

Topic 2: Digitalization and responsible use of AI in advisory services and education

Topic 4: Extension, education, and institutional capacity for driving agri-food systems transformation

Topic 5: Extension and advisory to facilitate entrepreneurship, bio-economy, food safety, ago-ecology, animal welfare and resilience to climate change:

Topic 6: Extension, media, rural and risks communication services

Key dates and milestones are as follows:

Submission deadline: 31 May 2025

Notification of acceptance: Before 15 June 2025

Submission of the extended abstract: 31 August 2025

Registration: 1 June 2025 to 7 September 2025

Contact: caree@uoguelph.ca

More information is available https://caree.ca/