Money from government and producer partners will help fund re-search into new disease resistant canola varieties.
Officials Sept. 4 announced $5.6 million in funding for projects targeting blackleg and sclerotinia disease resistance.
“Any kind of investment in research is integral to moving our crop forward,” said Joan Heath, chair of SaskCanola.
Of those funds, $4.2 million will come through the federal government’s Growing Forward 2, while the rest is made up of dollars collected from checkoffs from Alberta and Saskatchewan producers.
Although existing canola varieties carry resistance to blackleg, new strains of the disease pose a threat.
Heath said she hasn’t heard of any blackleg issues this growing season, but noted growers should be scouting for it as they swath canola.
She said money under this initiative will support research programs targeting different races of blackleg.
“(Blackleg) is not as much of a near-term disease threat as maybe scler-otinia, but it’s ability to grab hold and severely annihilate the canola industry if it was left unchecked means that we have to be vigilant in correcting for it,” she said.
