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$2.3 million in grower-funded canola agronomic research through group partnership

The three Prairie province’s canola grower organizations have reviewed and selected six new canola research projects to receive funding under the Canola Agronomic Research Program (CARP) in 2020. This includes an investment of more than $1.1 million from Alberta Canola, SaskCanola and Manitoba Canola Growers, as well as matching funds from the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF), bringing the total investment to over $2.3 million.

CARP supports canola agronomic research focused on increasing yield and profitability, reducing production risk and enhancing sustainability. This is the first time that WGRF has partnered with the three provincial canola grower organizations on the program, enabling greater discovery and value creation for the canola industry.

“CARP is a great way for canola growers to have a significant influence on the future direction of research investments,” says Keith Fournier, chair of SaskCanola’s research committee. “We value the partnership with WGRF; it allows us to increase the number of initiatives that can begin in 2020.”

Terry Young, WGRF board chair, says, “Canola is an important crop for producers and agronomic research is an important funding priority for WGRF – that’s what makes this collaboration with CARP such a good fit.”

This year’s CARP projects focus on:

• germplasm discovery for sclerotinia tolerance;
• investigation of insect pest predators;
• understanding of the clubroot infection process;
• improving insect pest monitoring;
• protein optimization; and
• high-throughput phenotyping to enable faster screening of stable, high-yielding traits.