DCHP-2
quota DCHP-2 (October 2016)
n. — Agriculture, in phrases such as to have quota, to be granted quota
the authorization to produce a certain quantity of agricultural goods.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — Quota generally means an amount contributed to a larger quantity, or a minimum or maximum limit (see OED-3, s.v. "quota" (1.a & b)). In Canada, however, the term also refers to the authorization, not the amount, granted by a marketing board to a farmer to produce an agricultural product (see, e.g. the 1987 quotation). The meaning in Canada is evidenced in lexicalized phrases such as "was granted quota" or "were given quota", whereas the more widely used meanings for quota are often found in phrases like "the imposed quota" or "the instituted quota".
The collocations are quite rare in provincial domains, which is why "agricultural quota" was used as a search term, taking the risk of including not just the 'authorization' but also the 'quantity' readings. Even so, Chart 1 shows that the term is most common in Canada.
See COD-2, s.v. "quota"(2.b), which is marked "Cdn".
