Sixty-nine projects will receive funding from the second round of a federal-provincial program designed to help Saskatchewan farmers decide what research fits on their farms.
Deputy agriculture minister Alanna Koch announced $473,000 for the projects under the Agricultural Demonstration of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) program.
The projects, which are taking place this summer, are led by 28 different producer organizations.
Larry White, chair of the Conservation Learning Centre in Prince Albert, said the money will help the centre with research.
The centre is receiving more than $29,000 for projects such as new crop varieties for northeastern Saskatchewan, fertilizer effects on malting barley and varietal selections of dwarfing winter hardy apple rootstock.
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“There can be a great variation in how varieties respond to different management in different areas,” White noted.
The District 32 ADD Board is co-ordinating a province-wide project looking at annual forages for greenfeed or swath grazing. Barry Swanson said the board will rely heavily on extension staff to help demonstrate the research.
Koch said the ministry’s regional services staff will be working with groups to get the information to producers.
“Years ago, there was a lot of that basic technology transfer that was occurring, but then there seemed to be sort of a vacuum for quite a long time,” she said. “ADOPT is sort of a new approach to what used to happen many years ago.”
Some of the funds are supporting projects at multiple sites.
The Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission is conducting research into the effectiveness of pod sealants. The East Central Research Foundation at Canora will look at corn grazing varieties and the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association is using $50,000 to distribute research on five different crops.
“We’ve been doing research in the Canora area for going on 13 years now,” said Glenn Blakley, chair of the ECRF. “Our board of directors have been very adamant that the research is great stuff but until we can apply it at the farmgate and the farmers in the local areas get the benefit of it then it’s not being as effectively used as what it should be.”
Producer groups are eligible for up to $10,000 per project to a maximum of $50,000 per year. Applications for the next round of funding must be in by June 15. The forms can be obtained from regional Saskatchewan Agriculture offices.
