Feds pledge $8 million to crop diversification research

The federal government will give over $8 million to Ag-West Bio Inc. for crop diversification research said federal ag minister Lawrence MacAuley today.

Ag-West Bio, a bioscience booster non-profit, will manage the Diverse Field Crop Cluster, a group of organizations representing small acreage crops, including camelina, carinata, flax, mustard and sunflower.

The funding is part of the AgriScience Program – Clusters Component, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

“The goal with DFCC is to give farmers viable alternatives to include in their rotations, which will

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help create an agricultural ecosystem that is more profitable while also being more resilient to
climate change,” said Karen Churchill, President and CEO of Ag-West Bio in a news release. “By pooling resources, DFCC can advance these crops much faster.”

“There is no doubt that our farmers are among the first to feel the impacts of climate change,” said MacAulay in the release. “That’s exactly why we’re supporting this important research to increase the yield and profitability of diverse field crops and make the sector more resilient.”

Research will focus on further developing crop genetics for lower-quality land and resilience, benchmarking greenhouse gas emissions produced by the crops, and how emissions are affected by nitrogen fertilizer.