Researcher’s lentils were province’s gift to world
Al Slinkard didn’t know it at the time, but his arrival in Saskatchewan on Feb. 1, 1972, was the beginning of a revolution in Saskatchewan agriculture.
After setting up shop at the new Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, Slinkard quickly realized the potential of protein crops to offset a wheat surplus that had led to rock-bottom prices and hard times for the province’s farmers.
Slinkard brought a variety of lentil lines from a plant introduction station in his native Washington. By 1974 he had chosen what he thought were the 10 best producing varieties.
He conducted a yield trial on small plots, and after three more years of research and development, released the Laird lentil, with a big, green seed to catch the customer’s eye.
Lentils leave residual nitrogen in the soil for the next crop, and adding a different crop to the rotation breaks up disease and insect cycles.
By 1998, Laird was the most widely grown lentil variety in the world, with more than one million acres grown in Saskatchewan. About 2.5 million acres are seeded to lentils annually.
“It’s above and beyond anything I could ever have dreamt of. Incomprehensible,” Slinkard told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix in 2013.
He released the Eston lentil in 1980, which is now the market class for small seeded, green lentils. Canada is now the world’s largest exporter of lentils. The industry is worth $1.3 billion in Saskatchewan and 96 per cent of Canada’s lentils come from this province.
In 2013, Slinkard was presented with the Pulse Legacy Award by Food Day Canada and Sask. Pulse Growers, an organization he helped found with John Buchan that now represents about 17,000 growers in the province.
As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the StarPhoenix and the Leader-Post are telling the stories of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation. Send your suggestions or feedback to sask150@postmedia.com.