REGINA – A federal-provincial agriculture fund announced nearly a year ago is almost ready to do business.
A 12-member board of directors was selected Oct. 16 for the Agri-Food Innovation Fund, a $91-million fund established as part of the interim farm safety net agreement between Canada and Saskatchewan.
The board will be co-chaired by Robert Wettlaufer, acting director general of the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, and by Dale Sigurdson, assistant deputy minister of Saskatchewan Agriculture. The board will meet at the end of October.
“They will be setting the stage for how the program will operate,” said provincial spokesperson John Babcock.
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He said the fund will be used for infrastructure, research, marketing, biotechnology, financing, processing and training needs.
The other federal board members are: Judy Moore, assistant deputy minister of Western Economic Diversification in Saskatoon; Leroy Berry, a Carievale producer; Donald Tait, a producer from Elrose; Lorne Thomson of Thomson Meats in Melfort; and Gordon Rowland, director of the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
The five provincial representatives are: George Lee, co-ordinator of agricultural research at the University of Saskatchewan; Don Russell, a producer from Rosetown; Bob Chappell, a crop processor at Prairie Malt in Biggar; Betty Althouse, a producer and veterinarian at Humboldt; and Louise Greenberg, manager of operations with Saskatchewan Agriculture’s extension services.
