Fertilizer Canada Appoints Casper Kaastra of Sollio Agriculture as Chair of the Board of Directors

Aug 20, 2025

Ottawa, ON, – Fertilizer Canada appoints Casper Kaastra, CEO of Sollio Agriculture, as the new Chair of the association’s Board of Directors. Kaastra has served on the board for over five years, including the last two as Vice-Chair. He brings strong leadership and extensive experience in agriculture, fertilizer distribution, specialty products, and agri-retail.

“For over 25 years, I have been working to support and strengthen the agriculture industry,” says Kaastra. “Farmers rely on fertilizer to reintroduce nutrients and maximize their yields. Ensuring a reliable supply and supporting product innovation is essential. This is an important time for the industry, and I look forward to working with my fellow directors and the Fertilizer Canada team to advance our sector.” Kaastra joined Sollio Agriculture in 2014 as General Manager of the Crop Production sector and took on the role of CEO in 2021. Raised on a dairy farm near Aylmer, Ontario, he has dedicated his career to agriculture. His business acumen, deep understanding of agriculture, and years of board experience position him well to serve as Chair.

“Casper has been an invaluable member of the Board of Directors, providing business insights and beneficial perspectives from the retail and farm level,” says Michael Bourque, President and CEO, Fertilizer Canada. “I’m pleased to see him take on this leadership position and look forward to working with him to advocate for increased competitiveness, strengthened supply chains, and greater awareness of the value of Canada’s agri-food industry.” Kaastra succeeds Lindsay Kaspick, Regional Marketing Manager of Koch Fertilizer Canada, who will remain a director on the board. “We appreciate Lindsay’s leadership and work over the last two years,” says Bourque. “His strong direction has enhanced our advocacy efforts, and we are pleased he will remain on the board to continue to provide his strategic insights and direction.” Fertilizer Canada has also appointed James Wirth, Director, Sustainable Energy Solutions at K+S Potash Canada, as Vice-Chair. Both Chair and Vice-Chair positions are held for two-year terms.

Fertilizer Canada’s 2025-2026 Board of Directors includes: Casper Kaastra, Sollio Agriculture; James Wirth, K+S Potash Canada; Dale Matchett, Richardson International; Stephen Jonkhans, CF Industries; Matt Conacher, Federated Co-Operatives Limited; Brad Dempsey, J.R. Simplot; Sarah Fedorchuk, The Mosaic Company; John Mackinnon, Cavendish Agri Services; Cassandra Loomans, Sylvite Holdings Inc.; Matthew Rosgen, Cargill Ltd.; Duncan Pottinger, Nutrien; Mandy Huska, Yara North America; and Michael Bourque, Fertilizer Canada.

Source : Fertilizer Canada

Video: From Students to Solutions | On The Brink: Season 2, Episode 14

Ask Canada’s most decorated soybean breeder his favourite part of the job and he doesn’t name a single variety. He names the students.

Istvan Rajcan is a professor of soybean breeding and genetics in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, where he has run the soybean breeding program for 28 and a half years. In that time he has developed 87 soybean cultivars, published 140 refereed papers and trained 51 graduate students. In 2025 he received the Public Sector Impact Award from the National Association for Plant Breeding.

He is also worried. In this episode he says Canada is at a crossroads, pointing to recent government cuts to plant breeding programs and to the facilities that support them. His prescription is structural. "Plant breeding funding formula has to be a long-term one," he says.

The formula he is defending is the public-private matching arrangement his program runs on. Private seed companies fund the work, provincial or federal money matches it, and the combined pool stretches each dollar further than either source could alone. At the National Association for Plant Breeding annual meeting in June, he says American public breeders were often surprised at how well that collaboration works in Canada.

He also describes how the people entering plant breeding have changed. His early graduate students came mostly from farms. More recently they include, in his words, "city kids who just became excited about genetics."

Topics covered:

Why public-private plant breeding funding in Canada needs a long-term

commitment rather than a larger one

How matching private seed company investment with provincial and federal

dollars multiplies research capacity

How the graduate student pipeline into plant breeding has shifted from

farm kids to city kids