The Lakehead University Agricultural Research Station showcased 44 experiments and other projects it's doing this year to local producers at its annual summer tour day.
Most notably, the station is adding 31 new varieties of all its crops to avoid stagnancy to sustain and improve crop yields, testing the greenhouse gas emissions of different enhanced-efficiency fertilizers and assessing whether these fertilizers could improve the efficiency of fertilizer use.
“Even before I start seeding the experiments, I share what sort of experiments I’m going to do with farmers and ask them if there’s anything else they would like us to do,” said Tarlok Singh Sahota, the station’s director, who personally meets with farmers in their fields and barns for these discussions.
“So, this is a very shared program with the farmers and (the) farm will be closely linked with the farmers. I think this is probably the only substation in our country, not only in the province, that works so closely with the farmers. We don’t keep anything with us ... everything we share.”