Alberta Wheat Commission announces $175,000 in agronomy-related research funding through Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster

The Alberta Wheat Commission (AWC) is pleased to announce funding commitments of $175,000 over five years through the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster (ICAC) to five research projects aimed at developing leading edge agronomic practices for farmers.

Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay recently announced $6.3 million in funding through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s CAP program to add to ICAC’s total investment of $2.6 million.

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

Chaired by the Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) and formed by cropping groups across Canada, ICAC 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:

• $20,000: Coordinated monitoring of field crop insect pests in the prairie ecosystem

• $5,000: Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network

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

• $50,000 Development of decision support tools for Fusarium Head Blight Management in Western Canada

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

AWC will provide project summaries and updates as they become available.