Manitoba Crop Alliance and Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers invest in diversification centres to boost research capacity

Manitoba Crop Alliance (MCA) and Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers (MPSG) have committed $691,591 in funding to Manitoba Diversification Centres to increase research capacity in the province.

MCA recently commissioned a study evaluating research capacity in the province. The resulting report highlighted four main challenges to maintaining and expanding research capacity: equipment, infrastructure and land, funding programs, and human resources.

This investment is enabling the diversification centres to purchase new or specialized equipment, such as tractors and seeders. The equipment will help the centres enhance the efficiency of their current operations and expand the types of research they conduct to provide impactful results to farmers across the province.

“We identified inadequate equipment as one of the primary challenges holding back research capacity in Manitoba and this investment will help bridge that gap,” says Katherine Stanley, research program manager for special crops with MCA.

“The diversification centres conduct crucial, applied research on behalf of our farmer members, and their locations across the province ensure that regional differences in soil and climate can be studied.”

Manitoba Diversification Centres are non-profit, farmer- and industry-directed organizations that are integral to keeping the flow of applied research information to farmers alive. They host a wide range of research activities that MPSG and MCA are invested in, such as AgriScience Program cluster projects, regional variety evaluation trials, and product evaluation and comparison trials.

“Each diversification centre has a capable team that we believe in and rely on each year to carry out mainstay projects and to be agile in accommodating new research,” says Cassandra Tkachuk, research project manager with MPSG. “We are pleased to collaborate with MCA in supporting the expansion of field research capacity at the centres to continue sending value back to farmers.”

The four diversification centres in the province are at Carberry, Roblin, Arborg and Melita, covering a variety of agro-climate conditions and soil types to highlight the response of crops to different growing conditions. By accounting for unique growing conditions at each location, the centres can conduct more robust and meaningful research, while testing novel ideas such as alternative crops and agronomic practices.