Ottawa Invests in Research to Diversify Crop Rotations

The federal government on Monday announced up to $5.73 million to promote more diverse crop rotations on farms, reports Syngenta. 

The money is earmarked for the Canadian Field Crop Research Alliance (CFCRA) through the AgriScience Program – Clusters Component, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. 

The cropping systems cluster, led by CFCRA, will develop the characteristics and practices to encourage diverse crop rotations for soybean, corn and oats, a federal release said.  

The research will aim to reduce business risk for farmers by developing crops that are resilient to climate change and weather stresses, protect against losses caused by diseases and insects, and are profitable for producers overall. The work will include developing oat varieties with improved traits for Eastern and Western Canada, as well as improving soybean varieties for short-season production environments in Canada. 

Research activities will also explore how diverse crop rotations can play a central role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and how better genetics, land management, and fertilizer use can improve nitrogen use efficiency to protect the environment, the release added. 

“With climate change having a direct impact on producers, crop diversity is vitally important to keeping our agriculture sector healthy, productive, and competitive,” said federal Ag Minister Lawrence MacAulay. “This funding will help researchers explore the benefits of crop rotations and encourage producers to integrate soybean, corn and oat crops into their farms.”