The federal and provincial governments recently announced they will invest $17.6 million for crop-related research in the Saskatchewan in 2023.
The funding, channeled through Saskatchewan’s Agricultural Development Fund, includes $10.3 million for 49 research projects and $7.2 million to support operations at the Crop Development Centre over the next five years.
The announcement was made at the Western Canadian Crop Production Show in Saskatoon.
“It’s very important to grow the ag sector the way we want to,” said Saskatchewan agriculture minister David Marit.
“When you look at some of the research projects, we’re obviously looking at disease control, we’re looking at new varieties, we’re looking at higher proteins, we’re looking at different mechanisms that we can use.
Read Also
Manitoba marks 100 years of building better crops
Manitoba has a rich history of crop breeding and disease management research that has helped shape Canadian agriculture as we know it.
“Obviously, it impacts the food sector as well as the value-added side. That’s why it’s all part of that research. But it’s really important to develop this.”
“Climate change and severe weather conditions threaten farmers’ livelihoods,” federal agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said in a joint statement with the province.
“We continue to invest in research and innovation so that producers have the tools they need to maintain and increase productivity despite the changing climate.”
Funded projects include research on fusarium, insect response to climate change, economic salinity remediation strategies for agricultural water and a nutritionally balanced pulse-oilseed protein-based beverage.
Thirteen industry partners across the Prairies have contributed an additional $4.6 million toward research projects.
Through the co-funding partnership, Saskatchewan Pulse Growers was awarded $3 million, which was leveraged for a total investment in pulse research and development of more than $6.7 million.
Seventeen pulse-specific research projects planned over two to five years will involve peas, chickpeas, soybeans, lentils, dry beans and fababeans, and address disease, root rots, herbicide resistance, insect control, fungicide use, soil fertility management and processing.
The Western Grains Research Foundation also announced funding of more than $2.6 million for 16 projects. They include research into rapid and low-cost disease diagnosis, insect pest surveillance, fusarium head blight management, epidemiology and virulence of plant pathogens, as well as breeding for disease resistance, increased yield and trait improvements.
The University of Saskatchewan was awarded $14 million. Of that, $6.8 million will support 29 projects, which include developing nutritionally balanced milk using pulse and oilseed protein, using plant-derived ethanol and biodiesel to reduce plastic waste and tackling a root rot problem in lentils.
A significant portion of the funding includes $7.2 million in operational support over the next five years for the Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan.
For more than 50 years, the facility has focused on developing new crop varieties (more than 500 across 40 different crop types) for western Canadian producers.
“A significant portion of the funding being announced today will help support our field operations to ensure that we could do the breeding, the pathology and the quality work that’s required to develop new varieties,” said Curtis Pozniak, CDC’s director.
“I think research is an important part of a sustainable production system. If you think of the innovation pipeline of research, you have to have that funding to support those ideas that then can flow into variety development.”
