Guelph, Ontario – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Research activities are at the heart of innovation and progress, especially in agriculture, and can lead to long-term growth and success for the sector.
Today, Lloyd Longfield, Member of Parliament for Guelph, on behalf of the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced up to $5,733,852 to the Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance (CFCRA) through the AgriScience Program – Clusters Component, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, to promote more diverse crop rotations on farms.
The Cropping Systems Cluster, led by CFCRA, will develop the characteristics and practices to encourage diverse crop rotations for soybean, corn and oat. The research aims to reduce business risk for farmers by developing crops that are resilient to climate change and weather stresses, protect against losses caused by diseases and insects, and are profitable for producers overall. This will be achieved by developing oat varieties with improved traits for Eastern and Western Canada, as well as improving soybean varieties for short-season production environments in Canada.
Research activities will also explore how diverse crop rotations can play a central role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and how better genetics, land management, and fertilizer use can improve nitrogen use efficiency to protect the environment.
Source : Canada.ca