Saskatchewan Pulse Growers chair Shawn Buhr announced at Pulse Days 2004 that a new $3 million research facility will soon be built at the University of Saskatchewan.
What he failed to mention is that the original plan was to build something more than three times as grand.
Buhr told the 952 producers gathered at this year’s conference that commitments were in place for $1.8 million of the project.
“I am confident that the remaining $1.2 million will be raised prior to construction,” he said.
The funding is not what the group had hoped to raise. In a July 10, 2002, News release
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news, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers estimated the total construction cost of the new lab at $10 million.
“I guess we were dreaming,” said Graham Scoles, associate dean of research at the University of Saskatchewan’s college of agriculture.
“We had to pare things down a bit.”
Instead of building a 21,500 sq. foot building with separate labs for plant pathology, physiology and breeding activities, it will be a 14,000 sq. foot field lab. The pulse breeding work will remain in the agriculture building on campus.
“This is just a very basic building to house the people that work in the (pulse) program,” said Scoles.
He said the cramped quarters in the existing pulse lab had become “fairly critical” so the project had to be hurried along. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2005. The project should be completed that summer.
Pulse breeder Bert Vandenberg is elated at the prospect of a new lab going up beside the one they’ve been working in since 1971.
“We started off in one room and … we’re still in one room, so we’re living in our storage,” he said.
“It’s kind of substandard, really.”
The old building has insufficient ventilation, lighting and storage space. Vandenberg said they’ve resorted to renting moving vans to act as temporary storage units to house crops harvested from the test plots.
He said the new facility will improve work flows, make the program more efficient and reduce the chronic dust problem.
Half of the funding for the new lab came from the Canada-Saskatchewan Agri-Food Innovation Fund, which committed $1.5 million to the project in July 2002.
The remaining $300,000 was contributed by private sector companies, such as Bayer CropScience, which handed Buhr a cheque for $30,000 at Pulse Days, bringing the company’s total contribution to $50,000.
Buhr said the association still has fundraising to do, but it should be an easier sell now that the project has taken shape and a deadline has been set for construction.
Two other research announcements were made by Buhr at the Pulse Days’ luncheon Jan. 13.
“Saskatchewan Pulse Growers will be expanding its investment in pea breeding to include private breeders,” he said.
The association will set aside $600,000 a year to fund joint ventures with private companies. Until now producer money has only been spent on work at universities and government institutions.
Buhr also mentioned that Agriculture Canada has established a new chickpea development program at the U of S and is advertising for a chickpea breeder.
“This will result in a team of three pulse crop breeders located at the U of S,” he said.
