New USask infrastructure to bolster agricultural research

May 27, 2025

Located on the USask Saskatoon campus, the Harrington Plant Growth Facility and the Soil Science Field Facility will provide capacity to expand research programs and enhance training opportunities for students in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources and the Crop Development Centre (CDC) at USask.

The project will also include a renovation to a portion of the Crop Science Field Lab at USask to provide additional workspace for the CDC. Construction is underway and is expected to be completed in July 2026.

“We are grateful to all of our partners and government supporters who have contributed to this important infrastructure project,” said USask President and Vice-Chancellor Peter Stoicheff. “These new facilities will be instrumental in advancing critical agricultural research and will set the stage for addressing global challenges as we aim to be the university the world needs.”

Named after USask alumnus Dr. James Bishop Harrington (PhD), a member of USask’s Class of 1920 (BSA), in recognition of his significant contributions to the field of plant breeding, the Harrington Plant Growth Facility will provide much-needed indoor growth room capacity for breeding programs. With a limited growing season in Saskatchewan, growth rooms are essential for researchers, allowing for multiple cropping cycles in a year.

The project will include an expansion in workspace capacity devoted to seed processing and storage as well as enhanced lab spaces for analyzing field samples. Providing increased capacity to meet the needs of the CDC’s renowned plant breeding programs, the new infrastructure will improve efficiency and support research for many of the crop types essential to western Canadian producers.

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