Applications open for GFO 2026 Legacy Scholarship

May 07, 2026
By Andrew Joseph
Assistant Editor, North American Content, Farms.com

Up to 10 scholarships of $5,000 will be awarded to Ontario students across a wide range of disciplines, including agriculture and non‑agriculture fields. Image by Joe from Pixabay

Applications are now open for the 2026 Grain Farmers of Ontario Legacy Scholarship, an annual program designed to support students pursuing post‑secondary education that contributes to the future of the province’s grain and agri‑food industries.

Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO) represents 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean, and wheat farmers across the province. According to the organization, these crops cover more than six million acres, generate over $4.1 billion in production value, contribute more than $27 billion in economic output, and support over 90,000 jobs.

Now in its fifth year, the scholarship aims to encourage the development of future leaders across a broad range of disciplines. The program, according to the GFO, reflects the diversity of careers within agriculture, including science, technology, business, communications, and public policy.

The scholarship is open to students accepted into or currently enrolled in any accredited college or university program. Up to 10 awards of $5,000 each will be offered, with as many as five available to students pursuing studies not specific to agriculture.

To be eligible, applicants must be permanent Ontario residents enrolled full‑time for the Fall 2026 semester at an accredited institution. Students may apply at any point during their studies, but recipients can only receive the scholarship once. Employees of Grain Farmers of Ontario and their children are not eligible.

Applicants are required to submit a resumé, a letter of reference, and a 500‑ to 1,000‑word essay outlining their interest in their chosen field, how their career goals will benefit Ontario’s grain sector or agri‑food industry, and why Grain Farmers of Ontario should support their academic path. Proof of enrolment is also required.

Applications must be submitted by July 19, 2026. More information is available at www.gfo.ca/legacy-scholarship.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators