The Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada has secured government funding to keep its prairie office at the University of Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan Agriculture is providing the centre with $250,000 over the next five years.
“To help our producers maintain a leadership role in the growing of organic crops in Canada, we need to increase the amount of Saskatchewan-based organic research,” said agriculture minister Mark Wartman.
Brenda Frick, prairie co-ordinator for the centre, said the organic community views the pledge as a show of support from the province.
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“They’re very impressed with the willingness of Saskatchewan Agriculture to commit to (organics) as if it were something worth taking seriously.”
Saskatchewan is home to 35 percent of Canada’s organic production. Organic acreage is growing at the rate of 20 percent per year in the province, prompting the government to spend $2.5 million on a variety of organic projects since 1997.
But it isn’t the only province investing in the sector. The centre has also received a matching $250,000 commitment from Alberta.
“Those pieces are enough to keep us running at this point so it is really significant,” said Frick.
She said the Saskatchewan Agriculture money will pay a portion of her salary and that of a technician as well as providing field supplies and covering travel and communication expenses. The province wants the money directed toward three priorities:
- Update a needs assessment for organic farmers.
- Conduct an agronomic and economic profile of an existing organic operation to provide conventional producers considering a transition into organics with an idea of what to expect.
- Apply organic weed research from Agriculture Canada’s research farm in Scott, Sask., and apply it to farm-scale field trials.
“One of the real success stories seems to be harrowing in peas. You can harrow peas several times without causing them damage and it gives pretty good weed control,” said Frick.
She intends to determine if that holds true in a farm setting using industrial-scale equipment.
While funding from sources like the Canadian Wheat Board and the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan should keep the centre operational, the facility still has a way to go to fully cover salaries and expenses.
Preliminary discussions have been held with the government of Manitoba and there are a number of other applications with various agencies that would top up funding to a more workable level, said Frick.
