Saskatoon – Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, announced an investment of over $4 million to the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) under the AgriScience Program – Clusters Component, part of the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
Agronomy, or the science and practice of crop production and farmland management, brings together knowledge of how plants, soils, insects, microorganisms and climate interact with each other in a given area. The Agronomy Cluster will deliver innovative research and knowledge transfer resulting in more resilient, productive crops and increased yields.
WGRF makes investments in crop research to benefit western Canadian grain farmers. One of the priority areas for WGRF is funding integrated crop agronomy. To reach this goal, the WGRF has established six cross-cutting research priorities: weed management, disease management, insect pest management, plant nutrition, response to weather variability and climate change, and sustainable resource management.
It’s expected that the research activities in this Cluster will generate a better understanding of the relationship between soil moisture conditions and the productivity and profitability of management strategies in western Canada, increase economic returns through developing and optimizing site-specific cropping systems in Western Canada, and facilitate the adoption of a biovigilance-based approach to weed mitigation in the Canadian prairies.
The Cluster consists of research activities in each of the AgriScience program priority areas: Climate Change and Environment, Economic Growth and Development, and Sector Resilience and Societal Changes.
“Agronomic practices that support resilient and profitable crop production are vital to our sector and to Canada’s economy. This important research that will be done across the country through this cluster will help to give farmers better solutions to the agronomic challenges they face, while improving profitability and incorporating climate-friendly practices to keep the sector well-positioned for the future. – Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food