A record amount of government money will be spent on crop research in Saskatchewan in 2012.
The provincial and federal governments are spending $8.3 million to fund 34 research projects in the province.
“This record funding will support projects that will ultimately create long-term benefits for producers at the farmgate,” said Saskatchewan agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud.
Oilseeds projects will receive $4.13 million followed by cereals at $2.33 million and pulses at $1.25 million. Fruit and vegetables and other small crops get the remainder.
The funding will be doled out to seven research agencies and companies. The University of Saskatchewan receives the lion’s share at $5.67 million.
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Bjornerud, who made the announcement at the canola portion of Crop Production Week in Saskatoon, said the money will pay for a variety of research initiatives:
- improving yields and disease-resistance in wheat, barley and flax
- increasing lentil yields and marketability through fertilization and genetic analysis
- studying infrared technology to screen out fusarium-infected wheat and barley seeds
- nutritional and quality analysis of peas, oats and saskatoon berries
- increasing profitability for wheat and lentil producers through genetic developments
- reducing yield losses in pulse crops due to drought
- increasing flax seed size to improve yields
- identifying clubroot resistant genes in canola
- identifying factors that cause blackleg disease in canola
Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission (SaskCanola) chair Brett Halstead thanked Bjornerud and Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar MP Kelly Block for the record funding.
“We think it’s great. It allows us to spread our dollars further because we can use some of these government funds for our research,” he said.
Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association and the Western Barley Growers Association also praised the announcement in a news release.
Bjornerud expects the $8.3 million in government funding to leverage another $14 million from private companies and industry groups such as SaskCanola.
He said the cereals portion of the funding could rise to reflect what he believes will be an increased prominence of wheat, barley and durum on Saskatchewan farms.
“We may see a lot more wheat being grown in the province because I know producers out there that backed away over the last number of years from wheat because it was through the wheat board,” he told reporters.
Bjornerud said he noticed a sense of optimism about farming at Crop Production Week.
“Everybody has got the feeling that maybe agriculture is starting to come out of where we’ve been over the last number of years.”
He doesn’t think farming receives the attention it deserves in the province with all the excitement surrounding Saskatchewan’s oil and gas and mining sectors. Farming still accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the province’s economy.
“I think sometimes we forget that in the big mix.”
