Fighting global hunger one crop at a time

May 09, 2025

As Saskatchewan farmers begin seeding the 2025 crop, Grow Hope Saskatchewan is launching its eighth growing season with a new partner at the table.

Canadian Lutheran World Relief (CLWR) has joined the ecumenical project expanding the collective effort to end global hunger.

“We are thrilled to join this vital project, partnering with Canadian Foodgrains Bank, local farmers, and fellow agencies as we work together toward our shared goal of ending world hunger,” said Cody Cleave, CLWR Donor Relations Manager.

Saskatchewan Representative for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and a member of the Grow Hope SK Steering Committee Rick Block said CLWR is a welcomed addition.

“It’s encouraging to see more churches coming together around something so tangible and effective,” Block said.

Grow Hope Saskatchewan connects farmers who donate land with donors who cover input costs of roughly $350 per acre. Crops are grown and harvested, and proceeds are matched up to 4:1 through Canadian Foodgrains Bank, multiplying the impact for communities facing food insecurity.

In 2024, 440 acres were sponsored, raising over $248,000. This year, the goal is 500 acres.

Support comes from both new and returning sponsors and first-time participants, including farmer Diana Dolack, who has donated 80 acres near Biggar, Sask.

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Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.