By Jim Smalley
Two key farm resolutions were passed at multiple Crop Development Commission annual meetings last week.
Saskatchewan farmers approved a resolution calling for government farm support for modern methods which reduce greenhouse gases.
SaskWheat Chair Brett Halstead says Ottawa’s proposed hike in the carbon tax from 30 to 170 dollars a ton by 2030 will be costly to farmers.
“Everything that we bring in, or take out of our farms. From the fertilizer that comes, or the farm chemicals that come to the dealership, to the railway hauling our grain to the west coast, its all got a Carbon Tax on it,” said Halstead. ‘There’s no way that we can recoup any of that.”
The Sask Wheat funding includes projects identified through the ADF intake process and funded by Sask Wheat solely or in partnership with other Prairie crop commissions and/or the ADF. The approved projects include fusarium head blight and ergot resistance studies, research into next generation fungicides, fungi and deoxynivalenol (DON) diagnostic tools, integrated pest management strategies for kochia, identification of genome structural variants for trait improvement, and grain protein and yield studies in durum and Canada Western Red Spring wheat varieties. Sask Wheat has committed over $12.9 million to projects through the ADF process since 2014. This research falls into the areas of variety development, production, and post-production.
By News Room
Two resolutions were passed at multiple online annual general meetings on Tuesday.
The carbon tax resolution asks the federal government to recognize and reward farmers for carbon dioxide sequestered in agricultural soils through continuous cropping, as well as reduced or zero till.
The other resolution calls for the establishment of an Export Sales Reporting program similar to the United States. Data would be reported daily, compiled weekly and released in a timely fashion.
In presenting the resolution at the SaskWheat Development Commission meeting, Strasbourg area farmer Brent Johnson (who is also SaskBarley vice chair) said “markets work best when all players have access to the same information.”
As the leadoff speakers in the CropSphere zoom online conference on Jan. 12, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Marie-Claude Bibeau and Saskatchewan s Premier Scott Moe announced . . .
“Saskatchewan’s agriculture sector has incredible growth potential and this targeted investment will help our producers and agri-businesses innovate to continue to deliver what the world needs,” Moe said. “This investment supports the bold goals in the Saskatchewan Growth Plan that will see our crop production increase to 45 million tonnes, agriculture exports increase to $20 billion and value-added revenue increase to $10 billion.” Support for ADF projects is awarded on a competitive basis to researchers looking to examine areas of importance to Saskatchewan producers. In addition to funding provided by the federal and provincial governments, the following industry partners have contributed a total of more than $3.1 million in funding to these projects: Western Grains Research Foundation, Saskatchewan Alfalfa Seed Producers, Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission, Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission, Saskatchewan Oat Development Commission, Saskatchewan Pul