The government kicked off the month with a $5 million investment into the Food Centre
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Saskatchewan agriculture and the importance of the sector in the province is in the spotlight as the provincial government proclaimed October as Agriculture Month.
Crop and animal production contributed almost $4 billion to the province’s GDP in 2021, federal data says. And the sector employs about 6 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population.
“The agriculture industry is a cornerstone of our province,” Agriculture Minister David Marit said in an Oct. 3 statement. “You can’t celebrate this amazing industry without acknowledging the people who make the industry great.”
Other interesting facts about Saskatchewan agriculture include:
- The province is home to about 40 per cent of Canada’s cultivated farmland.
- Sask. is the world’s top oat exporter.
- More than 50 per cent of canola is grown in the province.
- Sask.’s coat of arms has three gold sheaves of wheat to represent close ties to ag.
To help kickoff the monthlong celebration, Minister Marit announced a multimillion-dollar investment for the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre, also known as the Food Centre.
The Food Centre will receive $5 million over five years, with Saskatchewan and Ottawa sharing the cost from the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership.
The funding will help the Food Centre develop new products and market them around the world.
“The main thing for them is really developing new products, commercializing new products, fixing some of the problems in quality control or management, or looking at different raw materials section or these type of evaluations,” Mehmet Tulbek, president of the Food Centre, told CTV News.
The Saskatchewan government is encouraging people to share farm and food stories online using the hashtag #CelebrateAg.
And industry partners are doing the same.
“At the CDC, we create seed varieties that farmers grow to feed a growing and hungry population,” the Crop Development Centre said on X.