wheat grain
 
ALBERTA, CANADA — The Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) earlier this month said it is committing C$175,000 over the next five years to five research projects aimed at developing leading edge agronomic practices for farmers. The funding commitments are being made through the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster (ICAC).

“AWC invests in cutting edge research that has the potential to improve crop performance,” said Kevin Bender, chairman of the AWC. “The goal of our investments through ICAC are not only to strengthen agronomic outcomes but also to increase long-term profitability for farmers.”

The ICAC is chaired by the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) and formed by cropping groups across Canada. It is a cross-commodity agronomy cluster initiative aimed at encouraging increased investment in agronomy-focused innovation. ICAC takes a whole-farm approach to regional and national needs and long-term sustainability innovation including soil, water, air and economics.

AWC-funded projects through ICAC investment include:

• C$20,000: Coordinated monitoring of field crop insect pests in the Prairie Ecosystem

• C$5,000: Prairie crop disease monitoring network

• C$50,000: Crop sequence effects on fusarium head blight of cereals

• C$50,000 Development of decision support tools for fusarium head blight management in Western Canada

• C$50,000: Optimizing systems productivity, resilience and sustainability in the major Canadian ecozones.