Fertilizer research funded
Engineering researchers at the University of Saskatchewan will get $320,000 in corporate and federal funding to find ways to stop fertilizer deterioration in hot or humid climates.
The four-year project is funded half and half by PCS Potash and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council.
A five-person research team led by engineering professor Robert Besant will identify fertilizer shipping, handling and storage conditions that decrease the risk of caking due to water vapor in humid climates or particle breakdown and dust in hot conditions.
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The researchers will use PCS’s fertilizer product testing and climate simulation facilities at Innovation Place, on the U of S campus in Saskatoon.
B.C. co-op restructured
A restructuring plan and a $450,000 loan will allow Cloverdale Lettuce and Vegetable Co-operative to continue operations and protect jobs in the British Columbia agricultural sector.
In a March news release, B.C. agriculture minister Corky Evans announced the plan and the loan, which he said will help protect the co-operative’s 12 full-time staff and 90 seasonal employees.
The Cloverdale co-operative was established in 1969 and acts as processing and marketing agency for field vegetable crops in the Lower Mainland of the province. It provides produce to regional wholesale and retail customers, competing mainly against products from the United States, said the release.
Bombers added to fleet
Manitoba has purchased two CL-215 water bombers to use in fighting forest fires. The planes cost $2.1 million each and will bring the Manitoba bomber fleet to seven units.
Provincial natural resources minister Glen Cummings said water bombers are most effective in controlling forest fires.
“The water bombers will help protect our province’s forestry resources, especially in northeast Manitoba where there is potential for significant new forest industry development,” he said.
