Agriculture Category Removed Express Entry 2026: Where the Agriculture and Agri-Food Category Went
On 18 February 2026, IRCC published its list of Express Entry categories for the year. Farm managers, agronomists and agri-food workers who had been tracking this category since 2023 scanned the list for their occupation and didn’t find it. Here’s what the agriculture category removed Express Entry 2026 change actually involved, answered as the questions it raises.
Is there still an agriculture category in Express Entry?
No. The 18 February 2026 announcement did not include agriculture and agri-food occupations among the categories carried forward or introduced. It had run continuously since category-based selection launched in 2023, through 2024, and into 2025 — and then it simply wasn’t on the list published for 2026.
What happened to agriculture and agri-food occupations, exactly?
Reading the 2026 category list against the 2023 original shows the category’s own draw history: three rounds, all in the category’s first eighteen months — 28 September 2023 (600 ITAs, CRS 354), 21 December 2023 (400 ITAs, CRS 386), and 16 February 2024 (150 ITAs, CRS 437). No round has run under this category since February 2024, across the whole of 2025 and into 2026’s announcement. The category went quiet nearly two years before it formally disappeared from the published list.
Did IRCC explain the removal?
Not in a dedicated announcement that surfaced in the research behind this piece. The 2026 category list was published as a straightforward “these are this year’s categories” release, without a line-by-line comparison to what changed from 2025. The removal is visible by comparing the lists side by side, not by anything IRCC said about agriculture specifically.
Is this part of a pattern?
Somewhat. STEM and education categories are also on the 2026 list but hadn’t produced a single round through the middle of the year — technically active, functionally dormant. Agriculture and agri-food’s situation is different in one respect: it isn’t listed at all anymore, dormant or otherwise. The direction is consistent, though: categories with fewer eligible candidates, or narrower occupation lists, seem to fall out of active rotation over time, whether or not they’re formally removed.
Could agriculture come back in a future year?
Nothing in the published record rules that out, but nothing suggests it either. The category list has changed every year since 2023 — six categories became four in 2025, then ten in 2026, with occupations added, renamed and dropped along the way. Agriculture and agri-food’s three rounds are part of that same churn: real while they lasted, then simply not renewed, with no commitment either way about the future. Treating any current category list as fixed for the long term would be a mistake in either direction — agriculture disappearing is proof the list moves, and proof it could move again.
What should someone in agriculture do with this information?
The practical move, now that IRCC’s 2026 list confirms the agriculture category removed express entry 2026 outcome, is simple: stop planning around a category that no longer exists on the current list. The categories genuinely open to an offshore South African applicant right now are French-language proficiency, healthcare and social services, trades, STEM, education, and the 2026 transport list — none of which cover agricultural occupations specifically. A general skilled-worker or provincial nominee route, assessed against your actual occupation and its NOC code, is worth exploring instead of waiting for agriculture to reappear.
Cape2Canada’s free Express Entry Explained guide covers the categories that are currently active, a useful place to re-check your occupation against the present list rather than an old one.