The Grower receives international recognition

Oct 23, 2025

The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists announced its 2025 writing competition awards at its World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya on October 18. Its Star Prize for Innovation, the organization’s honour for the best reporting on the theme of Innovation went to a Swedish reporter for her story “Progressive Parlor: A New Era of Automation in Dairy Farming.”

Karen Davidson, editor of The Grower, was cited for runner-up honours for the August 2024 cover story: Artificial intelligence eyes auto-labour. She shares runner-up status with fellow Canadian farm writer Trevor Bacque of GrainsWest for his story: Short Lines Long on Value.

The Grower’s story spotlighted Prince Edward Island researchers working to perfect AgriScout, a robot with artificial intelligence to identify potatoes infected with potato virus Y. The story pivoted to Ontario where Holland Marsh growers are trialling FarmDroid’s ability to seed and weed onions. Altogether, sources included researchers, association representatives, agtech start-up companies and growers operating in both mineral and muck soils.

The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists represents more than 5,000 communicators in 60 countries who support freedom of the press. These communicators focus on sharing new technologies and information relevant to the agricultural industry.

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Video: New research chair appointed to accelerate crop variety development

Funded by Sask Wheat, the Wheat Pre-Breeding Chair position was established to enhance cereal research breeding and training activities in the USask Crop Development Centre (CDC) by accelerating variety development through applied genomics and pre-breeding strategies.

“As the research chair, Dr. Valentyna Klymiuk will design and deploy leading-edge strategies and technologies to assess genetic diversity for delivery into new crop varieties that will benefit Saskatchewan producers and the agricultural industry,” said Dr. Angela Bedard-Haughn (PhD), dean of the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at USask. “We are grateful to Sask Wheat for investing in USask research as we work to develop the innovative products that strengthen global food security.”

With a primary focus on wheat, Klymiuk’s research will connect discovery research, gene bank exploration, genomics, and breeding to translate gene discovery into improved varieties for Saskatchewan’s growing conditions.