News
New line-up for grains research foundation board
By Western Grains Research Foundation
The Western Grains Research Foundation recently announced a restructuring of its board, accepting the withdrawal of Viterra, as per its December 2007 notice to the members of the board.
March 31, 2008
In December 2007 Viterra notified the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) that they would be withdrawing their name from the WGRF Board as they are no longer structured as a producer Board, and therefore were not eligible for membership under WGRF’s Board guidelines.
At WGRF’s Spring Board meeting in March the Board agreed to accept Viterra’s withdrawal.
Prior to the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Agricore United merger that took place in March of 2007, both of these organizations were represented on the WGRF Board.
Today, WGRF is proud to be over-seen by a 16 member Board that is diverse and well rounded. The Board is made up of farmers each representing a different agricultural organization, from across all of the western Canadian provinces.
Our Board representation is as follows:
Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan
Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
Alberta Soft Wheat Producers Commission
Alberta Winter Wheat Producers Commission
BC Grain Producers Association
Canadian Canola Growers Association
Canadian Seed Growers Association
Canadian Wheat Board (Producer Board Rep)
Keystone Agricultural Producers
National Farmers Union
Prairie Oat Growers Association
Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission
Western Barley Growers Association
Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association
Western Pulse Growers Association
Wild Rose Agricultural Producers
“WGRF supports research programs and projects from around Western Canada, with both long-term and short-term agreements,” says Lanette Kuchenski, Executive Director of the Western Grains Research Foundation. “Having farmer representation on our Board from all of the western Canadian provinces is important to the productivity of our research agreements and keeping farmers competitive against the rest of the world.”
WGRF is a charitable non-profit organization that is farmer funded and directed. Set-up to fund research that directly benefits prairie farmers, the WGRF administers an Endowment Fund and the Wheat and Barley Check-off Funds, with annual research funding in the range of $4 to $5 million.
To date, the Endowment Fund has supported a wealth of innovation across Western Canada and provided more than $19 million in funding for over 200 projects across a number of different crop types. While the check-off funds have supported in part more than 55 new varieties of wheat and 25 varieties of barley, with new and improved varieties in the pipe-line.
