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By DOUG WALKEY
Ag
RESEARCH
Shiftinggears
Have you ever heard a
quotation that really hits home, only to
find out that it is 50, 100 or 300 years old?
That makes me wonder if humanity has
made any progress. The truth is, progress
is just a moving target for us to chase.
Over 16 years, the Alberta Crop Industry
Development Fund (ACIDF) has invested
almost $85 million in crop research and de-
velopment. We have clear evidence of pro-
gress and accomplishments, yet our work
is far from finished. The bar for developing
our industry continues to move higher—we
are in a stream of development.
Farmers tell us development is a chain
from germplasm to production, processing
and meeting market needs.
Like those enduring quotations, prior-
ities supporting Western Canada’s crops
change little. Here are the highlights:
•
Crop germplasm and variety devel-
opment:
We need to focus on yield
at a given quality, then disease/pest
control and water/nutrient use.
•
Cropping systems:
This includes
precision farming, imagery for
management decisions, fertilizer use
efficiency, climate adaptation and
reducing crop input costs.
•
Agronomy:
Managing the crop, soil
Road forward for Albertaagresearch is clear
health, crop pests, rotations and oth-
er aspects of sustainable production.
•
Assured supply and quality:
To be
viable in world food systems, we need
production of consistent quality. We
need to be prepared for variations in
weather, as well as new and evolving
diseases and pests. We need to invest
in surveillance and prevention, as
well as resistance and control.
•
Livestock feeds:
Grains, silage and
forages are important to crop rota-
tions, productivity and diversifying
markets. Crops need a competitive
livestock sector in order to flourish.
•
Crop diversification:
It comes down
to choices and profitability—having
more profitable crops to choose from
expands rotation options and allows
more responsive marketing.
•
Computer-aided analysis:
Modern
equipment provides mountains of
data. This data helps us make better
decisions when it comes to produc-
tion, the environment and markets.
•
New food, ingredient and beverage
products:
Greater demand leads
to stable markets and prices. An
expanding Canadian processing in-
dustry is an important side benefit.
•
New non-food industrial products
and ingredients:
Crops are chock full
of valuable components. Non-food
uses for agricultural products provide
value for off-grade harvests and for
unused byproducts of food processing.
Addressing all those priorities requires
huge resources and very deep pockets.
Here’s how we should proceed:
•
Share and co-ordinate resources
across the Prairies:
Parochial think-
ing will lead to poor results at best,
and our current track record shows it.
•
Harvest the world for ideas, research
and solutions:
We need to use our
scarce development resources to solve
problems, not to test what has already
been proven. Canada as a whole con-
ducts less than two per cent of world
field research; we need to access that
other 98 per cent.
•
Focus on problem solving at all
levels:
Blue-sky research is exciting,
but limited resources demand that we
focus on priorities. Canada will fall
behind if we don’t create solutions.
•
Let the markets decide where we
invest:
Don’t develop 20 new crops—
develop two new crops profitable
enough to compete for acres.
Unfortunately, these four simple steps
will require a serious change of practices
from our industry. That’s the real chal-
lenge of our research future: relearning to
work together.
Agriculture has a moral obligation to fu-
ture generations. As stewards of our land,
farmers build and maintain the quality
of their land as they produce food and in-
dustrial crops. Shepherding nutrients and
water will become a larger part of both
market demand and the ability to produce
economically. We are already doing a good
job, but we have to continue that work.
The next question is “where do we
start?” ACIDF asked some 200 producers
and agri-business stakeholders for guid-
ance and this is what they came up with:
optimize use of inputs and nutrients soil
health, tillage practices, crop and herbi-
cide rotations, residue management, vari-
ety and germplasm for yield and quality,
and precision farming technologies.
I leave you with a quotation from Robert
Louis Stevenson that still rings true: “Don’t
judge each day by the harvest you reap but
by the seeds that you plant.”
Doug Walkey has been executive director
of the Alberta Crop Industry Development
Fund (ACIDF) since its inception in 1997.
Winter
2017
Grains
West
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