Crop research receives funding in Saskatchewan

Regina, Sask. – A recent investment in crop research will help farmers in Saskatchewan become more productive and profitable.

The federal and provincial governments have announced $6.5 million in funding for 38 crop-related research projects.

Projects

The projects that are to receive funding in 2013 include:

• Improved weed management;
• Improved yields for wheat;
• Genetic mapping of blackleg disease in canola;
• Disease resistance in cereals and pulses;
• Improvements in the nutritional value of oats;
• New technologies to assess sprout damage in wheat;
• Herbicide tolerance in mustard varieties;
• Addressing genetic and disease obstacles to canary seed production; and
• Methods to control and eradicate clubroot in canola.

The Saskatchewan Agriculture Development Fund (ADF) is providing the funding for these projects. The funding is part of a record $20.4 million provincial agriculture research budget in 2012-13, which is an increase of more than 50 per cent since 2007. More than $57 million in research project funding has been provided through ADF since 2007.

Agriculture research

This investment in agriculture research will help achieve goals set out in the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth, such as establishing Saskatchewan as an international leader in biosciences, increasing crop production by 10 million tonnes and increasing provincial agriculture exports by $5 billion by 2020.

This ADF project funding will help to leverage additional third-party funding of more than $8.4 million.

Western Grains Research Foundation, the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, the Saskatchewan Oat Development Commission and the Canaryseed Development Commission of Saskatchewan are just a few of the organizations that are partnering on these ADF projects.

Industry response

Several of the groups have responded to the news.

“Research has been vital to the growth of the canola industry,” says Brett Halstead, SaskCanola Chair. “We appreciate the funding announced today and look forward to the benefits it will create for canola producers in the future.”

The funding announcement “will play a pivotal role in advancing our industry,” says Dwayne Anderson, Saskatchewan Oat Development Commission Chair. “We are pleased to partner on these projects and thank the federal and provincial governments for their support.”

“We appreciate the funding announced for wheat research, which will benefit the industry and producers for years to come,” says Gerrid Gust, Western Canadian Wheat Growers Chair.

“We are pleased that the federal and provincial governments have agriculture research as a priority and we look forward to a continued partnership that brings new technologies to Saskatchewan producers and the world,” says Dave Sefton, Western Grains Research Foundation Chair.