RDAR Boosts Support For Western Crop Innovations With $5 Million Investment

Backed by funding from the federal and provincial governments through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, RDAR is delivering an additional $5.2 million in Western Crop Innovations (WCI) to strengthen feed and forage barley and triticale breeding for Alberta and Western Canadian producers. The investment will strengthen Alberta’s plant breeding capacity, accelerate the development of locally adapted varieties and support the long-term competitiveness of crop and livestock producers in the province and across the west.

Established in 2024 to carry forward the work of the Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC), WCI builds on a strong breeding legacy that includes 45 barley varieties and 19 triticale varieties. These include 40 general-purpose and five malting barley varieties, along with 10 spring and nine winter triticale varieties. The barley releases include advanced traits such as improved nitrogen-use efficiency and non-glycosidic nitrile, or non-GN. Non-GN varieties are important to the whisky and distilling sector.

WCI varieties accounted for 8.3 per cent of general-purpose, non-malt barley acres in Western Canada in 2025, with a target of 9.3 per cent by 2028. Recent releases include AB Standswell, a six-row feed and forage variety and the first barley variety with enhanced nitrogen-use efficiency.

For producers, the investment is intended to support varieties that are productive, resilient, and practical for Western Canadian growing conditions. By linking breeding science with the needs of feed, forage, crop, and livestock systems, WCI helps ensure that new varieties are developed with producer use in mind.

WCI is modernizing its breeding programs with advanced tools such as genomic selection, UAV-based digital phenotyping, and speed breeding. These approaches can help accelerate genetic gain, improve breeding efficiency, and support faster validation of traits that matter to producers. WCI has also strengthened its pipeline by integrating biotechnology, pathology, and quality assessment, and by adopting a Strategic Blueprint that includes key leadership roles and Industry and Scientific Advisory Committees.