Saskatoon bushes, strawberry plants and grape vines will greet visitors to the Assiniboine Community College campus in Brandon this summer.
The college is establishing a fruit crop orchard that will be part of the new applied research program in horticultural production.
“ACC has stepped up to train the next generation of horticultural workers,” Manitoba agriculture minister Stan Struthers said Feb. 25 while announcing the program.
The Manitoba and federal governments have committed $318,000 toward construction of the orchard and creation of the one-year training program, which will focus on fruit and vegetable production.
Jack Moes, the college’s associate vice-president of applied research, said it’s unusual for a community college to conduct research, but this horticultural program will fill a need in Manitoba.
“We’ll be working closely with the province on some of their projects that are focused more on production techniques…. It (the research) is focused more at the producer how-to level.”
Approximately 500 farmers grow vegetables and fruit in Manitoba. Struthers said sales generate $40 million a year for the industry.
Most employees on Manitoba’s vegetable and fruit farms are temporary workers from Mexico, but Moes said producers also need people with more horticultural knowledge and a “more sophisticated skill set.”
Graduates of the horticultural production program may take jobs on farms, Moes said, but they could also take their newfound knowledge in another direction.
“This program is also going to appeal to individuals who have an entrepreneurial interest … starting a greenhouse operation, starting their own vegetable production enterprise.”
