wheat with green stem

Editorial: The farm organizations ‘that matter’

The recent decision to join UPOV ’91, the international agreement on plant breeders’ rights, was part of Bill C-18, “The Agricultural Growth Act.” Back in the day, it would have been called something like “An Act Regarding the Application of Plant Breeders’ Rights in Canada.” The previous Bill C-18 would have been “An Act to

Zambian farmer Wilfred Hamakumba and his wife Irene, have embraced herbicides as part of their conservation agriculture management. Over the past several years, the farm’s yields have more than doubled, their crops are more diversified and their farm has expanded in size. Irene is particularly pleased with their spraying program, saying it takes a lot less labour than weeding.

Can conservation agriculture save Africa’s soils?

Adoption rates are 
slow, but it may be the continent’s best — 
and last — hope

It was the end of a very long day. We had travelled to remote areas on bad roads, walked barefoot across a flooding creek and hiked nearly an hour both ways to reach one of the three farmers we were scheduled to visit. We were on the trail of conservation agriculture (CA) success stories, and


Gerry Ritz, Canadian Agriculture MInister

Strong support as Agricultural Growth Act becomes law

The main dissenter is the National Farmers Union. KAP wants farmers to be consulted on the regulations

There was applause here when plant breeders, seed companies and farmers at the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale heard the Agricultural Growth Act with its stronger intellectual property rights was about to receive royal assent. Immediately following the bill becoming law last week, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz tabled a treaty in Parliament

man in corn field

Grow less maize and produce more food

Boosting yield allows seeding less maize as ‘insurance,’ and adding more profitable and nutritious crops to the rotation

Christian Thierfelder strides into a plot of maize, reaches down, and scratches through the mulch with his fingers to grab a clump of soil. Holding it up, the senior agronomist with CIMMYT’s Harare field station lets it crumble through his fingers — it is moist but not muddy, and the decaying plant material gives it


Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association director David Rourke says it will do most of its research on joint projects with other provinces.

Giving farmers a role in variety development

Should farmers just provide a little assistance, or form their own breeding company?

What role should farmers play in developing new wheat and barley varieties? It’s a question Western Canada’s cereal groups are tackling together, says Brent VanKoughnet, a consultant working with the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association (MWBGA), one of the groups involved in the project. Directors and staff from eight organizations, with some funding and

KAP meeting

You can save seed, but can you ‘stock’ it?

As UPOV ’91 becomes closer to reality for Canadian farmers and seed breeders, many questions remain to be answered

Planned amendments to Canada’s Plant Breeders’ Rights Act are generating a lot of questions and few answers, as some farmers begin to fear they’ll be left to reap what the federal government sows. Omnibus Bill C-18 — known as the Agricultural Growth Act — will affect a total of nine pieces of legislation including the


man standing on crop research project field

Will it be chess or checkers?

A researcher explores different ways of sustainably playing the farming game

It was standing room only in the University of Manitoba’s Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre Jan. 21 for a seminar entitled “Conservation agriculture, organic farming and agro-ecology: the three musketeers of a sustainable food system.” “I try to do this every year because I want to give the graduate students permission to ask tough questions and



Wheat yield to decline as temperatures increase

Wheat yield to decline as temperatures increase

International group combines models to increase accuracy of prediction

For every degree celsius that the temperature increases, the world stands to lose six per cent of its wheat crop, according to a new global study led by a University of Florida scientist. That’s one-fourth of the annual global wheat trade, which reached 147 million tonnes in 2013. Senthold Asseng, a UF professor of agricultural

soil profile of farmland

Dirt’s big year

The FAO has designated 2015 as the International Year of Soil

Last year may have been a lot of things to a lot of people but one thing it surely wasn’t was predictable. I mean who foresaw last year’s record-setting high in the U.S. stock market, the plunge in global crude oil prices, Russia’s naked grab of Ukraine’s sovereign territory or the Obama administration’s reaching out