Chamali Kodikara isn’t suited for that sort of introverted life.

“I really like to do the other stuff as well,” said Kodikara, after learning she had been elected vice-president of competitions for the Chicago-based Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Student Association.

A researcher can’t expect to be as effective if their only focus is performing research and they don’t foster connections, she said.

“Just doing research isn’t going to employ knowledge.”

Kodikara is about to begin her doctorate studies at the University of Manitoba and is working with the Canadian Grain Commission on wheat alkaloid research. She is president of the University of Manitoba food science department’s graduate students association and has been working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada as a research scientist.

Her path follows the international and multi-disciplinary route that characterizes the global food science field.

She did her undergraduate work in Sri Lanka, her master’s in Sweden and has been conducting research in Winnipeg. Her involvement with IFT has exposed her to the vast and complex international food industry.

Plant-based protein enthusiasm is driving enormous investment and product development; artificial intelligence allows for faster concept development, and breakthroughs in chemistry are providing food enhancements like never before.

For all of her international academic pedigree, however, Kodikara’s research in Manitoba has had a more local focus: development of under-utilized prairie fruits and berries.

She worked with other researchers to identify various health-promoting components in native fruits like chokecherry and saskatoon, with hopes of increasing farm production.

“I feel happy,” Kodikara said. “It will improve myself and contribute to society.”

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The new executive is comprised of chair Fred Greig (MCA) who farms at Reston, vice-chair Jake Leguee (Sask Wheat), a farmer from Fillmore, Sask., and treasurer Jason Lenz (AWC), who farms near Bentley, Alta.

Lauren Comin, the director of research with AWC, has been appointed the CWRC president, succeeding Harvey Brooks, general manager of Sask Wheat.

“It’s been a historical year for wheat research in Canada,” said Greig, in a media release.

“We saw the execution of two core breeding agreements, marking the largest of these producer contributions towards wheat variety development since their establishment. This would not have been possible without the collaborative environment that the CWRC creates.”

CWRC’s operational hosting duties rotate every three years between the three Prairie commissions that represent wheat farmers. Hosting duties include administrative functions such as accounting services, research funding co-ordination, communications including website updates and annual reports, and other responsibilities such as planning and co-ordinating CWRC’s annual general meeting.

Sask Wheat was the first commission to host CWRC in its initial startup years. The key contact for external stakeholders, the president, is appointed from the host organization and approved by the CWRC board of directors. The duties will now fall to the Alberta Wheat Commission for the next three years.

The CWRC facilitates a collaborative approach to producer support of regional and national wheat research in variety development and agronomy, including administering the Canadian National Wheat Cluster under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Canadian Agricultural Partnership program.

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It is through ongoing innovation that Canadian wheat exports will compete with the likes of the Black Sea. In the period of 2015-18, Canada has consistently been in the top 10 wheat-producing countries in the world and within the top five wheat-exporting countries in the world.

Focusing on innovations by increasing wheat yield while maintaining or exceeding our country’s reliability in yield, sustainability, food safety and quality will help to maintain, or ideally advance, Canada’s position in a competitive global wheat market.

Cereals Canada has been working to improve Canada’s innovation in wheat by co-ordinating the National Wheat Research Task Group alongside Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The task group is a unique collaboration from across the country and value chain that includes public and private funders of research, public and private researchers, farmers, exporters and processors. The goal of the organization is to facilitate investment in innovation in wheat to ensure that Canada continues to be at the forefront of research efforts to help enable the industry to respond to changing producer and consumer demands.

I’m still buzzing with excitement from the latest task group meeting at the engagement of the Canadian wheat value chain which included representatives from researchers to producers to grain handlers and exporters to end-use customers. This group came together several times throughout the past year to update the first National Wheat Research Priorities document, which was originally published in 2017.

The document from 2017 represented the first time that the Canadian wheat value chain came together to align on national wheat research priorities. The results of this work will be published this summer in the updated document. The recent updates to the national research objectives include re-prioritizing goals and deliverables as well as establishing key performance indicators and other metrics to measure the success of investments in research and innovation in Canadian wheat development and production.

The contribution of this unique partnership across the value chain is not limited to the publication of a report. The work developing consensus positions on objectives and measurements has already resulted in improved communication of market demands and farmers’ priorities.

It is through this collaboration on where research (and therefore investments) should be focused that researchers and developers can then collaborate to deliver solutions to enable producers to grow more wheat on less land while us- ing fewer crop inputs.

Also, by having this cross-value chain group involved in this prioritization process, we are able to leverage different perspectives to position Canada as not only a leader in wheat production and export but also in innovation.

This is particularly important when we are in a time of intense competition and increased protectionism usually seen through non-tariff trade barriers. One of the ways that we’ve been able to evaluate wheat research investments from 2016 to present is through the creation of a national wheat research database.

Through an analysis of the research projects included in the database, the majority of wheat research projects fit within the themes of improving yield, yield reliability and sustainability with a small proportion of projects having a main focus on food safety or quality.

Projects within these three main themes have a primary focus on agronomy, variety development and/or foundational/discovery. The centralized database also is able to provide consolidated information on funding commitments by research theme and category so that the value chain is able to critically evaluate whether research investments are in line with national research priorities.

By experience being involved in this has been energizing to see people who are so passionate about what they do, working together towards a common goal. The sum truly is greater than its parts and this collaboration will no doubt produce a result better than what individuals could have delivered on their own.

We have a lot to be proud of with Canadian wheat and this is another feather in our caps.

Victoria Linden is Cereals Canada’s director of research.

The post Comment: Innovation through collaboration appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

I am proud of what I call Team Canada — namely Cereals Canada and what it has done for the Canadian wheat industry. The first time in Canadian history all players are speaking with one voice. This attack is actually clear admittance of defeat in preventing the industry from moving forward. The first defeat was specifically, the change in the marketing structure, giving farmers market choice for their wheat and second, preventing groups from joining of Team Canada.

It is unfortunate that a few GM plants were found outside of the containment strategy designed for research programs. However, customers can have absolute confidence in Canadian wheat. The sky is not falling. Breads, buns and noodles around the world will continue to be made with high-quality Canadian wheat. Cereals Canada and other industry groups are working hard to address customer concerns.

Everyone understands the sensitivity of the consumer and their choice in purchasing decisions. Farmers and the industry have been incredibly flexible and diverse in satisfying consumer desire. The use of science, research, development and value creation have served to satisfy and to capture this additional value from consumers. Certainly, most organic producers like Mr. Wells should clearly have this understanding.

The Canadian industry needs to remain open and flexible with the use of any scientific tools and research techniques which will generate additional value.

Political debates of the past serve no purpose other than to distract from planning for future. I would suggest this paper would do a greater service for the industry by looking at all the interesting ideas for the future.

Henry Vos
Fairview, Alberta

We welcome readers’ comments on issues that have been covered in the Manitoba Co-operator. In most cases we cannot accept “open” letters or copies of letters which have been sent to several publications. Letters are subject to editing for length or taste. We suggest a maximum of about 300 words.

Please forward letters to Manitoba Co-operator, 1666 Dublin Ave., Winnipeg, R3H 0H1 or Fax: 204-954-1422 or email: news@fbcpublishing.com (subject: To the editor)

The post Wheat industry moving forward appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Working out the right conditions to support those beneficial fungi and identifying the cereal varieties that are best suited to make the most of that help is the challenge a young team of scientists from the U.K.’s Rothamsted Research has taken up. Their complete findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Take-all is a devastating root disease of cereal crops worldwide, caused by the fungal pathogen, Gaeumannomyces tritici. Related species are capable of immunizing plant roots. Farmers struggle to control the disease because few chemical seed treatments are available.

“This work aimed to explore whether wheat genetics can be exploited to help support and potentially build up populations of closely related take-all suppressing fungal species that are known to lower the disease levels caused by the take-all fungus,” says Vanessa McMillan, co-author and post-doctoral researcher in plant pathology.

The team collected samples of the beneficial fungus from the fields of Rothamsted Farm and developed a laboratory test to explore their ability to colonize and protect the roots of barley, rye, wheat and triticale. In field trials, the team identified commercial cereal varieties that performed better than others.

“The ability of wheat cultivars to support and be colonized by natural or introduced populations of beneficial Gaeumannomyces species could be harnessed and exploited,” McMillan said.

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When Bushuk started school in Garland, Manitoba in September 1939, he was 10 and only knew a few words of English.

Seventeen years later, the son of Eastern European peasant farmers who came to Canada just days ahead of the outbreak of the Second World War, had earned a PhD in physical chemistry from McGill University and would go on to become internationally known and respected in his field.

Bushuk, whose research focused mainly on wheat quality, worked at the Canadian Grain Commission’s Grain Research Laboratory, Ogilvie Flour Mills and the Canadian International Grains Institute, but for most of his career he was a professor in the department of plant science, at the University of Manitoba.

Bushuk retired in 1993, but continued research as professor emeritus.

In 2003, he was appointed Member of the Order of Canada for outstanding lifetime contributions in research and teaching.

Bushuk attributed much of his success in scientific research to the unfailing love and support of his wife Jean and other members of his family, his obituary says.

Bushuk received many international awards, including an Honorary LL.D. (Poznan, Poland), three international scientific medals, and fellowships from five scientific societies, including The Royal Society of Canada (F.R.S.C.) and the Osborne Medal from the American Association of Cereal Chemists.

In May 2001 Bushuk received the first ‘Distinguished Career Award’ in the academic category at the second International Wheat Quality conference in Manhattan, Kansas.

In October 2001 a special scientific symposium — ‘Wheat Quality Elucidation: the Bushuk Legacy’ — was held in Charlotte, South Carolina, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Association of Cereal Chemists. Fifteen of Bushuk’s former students and research colleagues from seven nations presented scientific papers, which will be published as a book in honour of their mentor.

Together with his students and scientific colleagues, Bushuk published more than 300 scientific and technical articles and edited several books.

More than 40 scientists from 27 countries came to Winnipeg to train with Bushuk.

Between 1986 and 1996 Bushuk worked on developing an objective grading machine — the so-called “black box.”

While a black box doesn’t exist yet, Bushuk said in a 2001 interview his research, which married a camera with a computer, had made advances.

“All the information we had at that time showed it should be possible,” he said. “We could determine vitreousness, sprouting, fusarium, bleaching, but when we tried variety identification, we ran into some difficulties. The kernels of some varieties are unique and some are not. So we had to find a way to improve the technology.”

Bushuk predicted a rapid and affordable objective assessment system for wheat quality will be reality someday.

Bushuk was also an early critic of Western Canada’s kernel visual distinguishability (KVD) system that required wheats intended for a certain class to have the distinct kernel appearance of that class.

KVD made it easier for grain buyers to segregate wheat purchases and assure buyers got what they ordered, but wheat breeders said it was an impediment to increasing yields.

Bushuk suggested KVD could be replaced by farmers “declaring” what variety they were delivering.

KVD ended in 2008 and the declaration system was adopted. The Canadian Grain Commission says the declaration system is working.

Serendipity, often the scientist’s friend, loomed large in Bushuk’s life, including the family’s arrival in Canada.

It might be unexpected for a boy who couldn’t speak English at the start of his academic career to attain the heights Bushuk did, but that reflected a family commitment to education that fuelled the family’s move.

One of the reasons his parents left Jakovichi, which was then in Poland and is now in Belarus, was so their children would have access to a better education.

As ethnic Belarusians Bushuk’s father knew his children wouldn’t have access to a good education in Poland. He even picked his 80-acre farm at Garland because it was close to the school.

Life in Canada was tough to start, Bushuk said.

“The first couple of years were rather difficult for my parents,” he said during the 2001 interview, clearing his throat and misty eyed, “because they left everybody — their brothers and sisters and friends and came to a strange country.”

Bushuk said he never had any desire to follow his father and farm. But he knew his parents were “quietly proud” of his education.

“I remember helping my father pick stones after I had my PhD and I was home for a bit of a holiday,” Bushuk said. “Here we are sitting on the stoneboat and unloading it — I can’t think of anything less inspiring — and my father had a big grin on his face and says, ‘I just never thought I’d have a guy with a PhD helping me pick stones.’”

The post Celebrated Canadian cereal chemist Walter Bushuk passes away appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Farmers have been growing wheat in these parts for more than 200 years and they’ve earned quite a reputation for themselves selling it to the world.

But a former senior federal research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada hinted at a recent Canadian Global Crops Symposium that perhaps farmers here could be growing it better — with a little help.

In outlining his concerns with the current wheat research agenda, Stephen Morgan Jones noted wheat yields increase by about 1.3 per cent per year, half of which is due to genetics and half of which is due to improved agronomy.

Yet when it comes to research, agronomy gets about 10 per cent of the total research funding.

Morgan Jones asked his audience to consider whether the 266 active public research projects investing about $45 million annually in improving the crop are hitting the mark. And while we’re at it, what is the mark?

“We talk about increasing wheat yield, but do we really have any idea of where we want to get to over the next 15 years?” he asked.

While the numbers would suggest Canada has a robust wheat development program, many of the projects are small and underfunded — especially in the area of improved agronomy.

He also pointed to the ongoing research into fusarium head blight. There are 30 projects dedicated to it, but after 25 years and millions of dollars invested, little progress has been made.

The three provincial wheat commissions were quick to respond. In a letter to the editor in our April 28 issue of the Manitoba Co-operator they cite several examples of where they are co-operating to better understand the wheat genome and improve wheat varieties available to farmers.

But even their response is focused on varietal development.

There’s no denying continuous varietal improvement is important to the future of any crop.

However, Plant Breeders Rights and other forms of intellectual property protection have made it easier for researchers to capture a return on investment from new varieties and crop protection products. There has been no way found — as yet — to do the same with techniques.

That relegates agronomic research to the purview of publicly funded researchers, provincial extension services — both of which are chronically underfunded — and projects paid for by producer checkoffs.

A seed that yields more for the same amount of inputs is an easy benchmark to target. Those incremental gains — the one per cent here, the five per cent there — that come from the combined efforts of thousands of farmers are not so easily measured or achieved.

When the Canola Council of Canada began looking into how to consistently increase production a few years ago, it soon became clear that the focus had to be on the ‘how’ of growing as well as better varieties.

In fact, four out of the five pillars in the council’s strategy to increase average yields from 34 bushels per acre to 52 by 2025 are about agronomy. Only eight bushels of the 18-bushel target gain comes from genetic improvements.

It’s fair to ask whether a similar approach is needed for wheat.

The post Editorial: Balancing wheat research appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The workshop included public and private researchers from across Canada, farmers from coast to coast, and Canadian exporters.

The goal was to move forward on the development of key priorities for Canadian wheat research.

Why is this important? Federal and provincial governments are beginning the process of developing the next set of agricultural programming. A key focus of agricultural spending will be innovation and research. All governments need to know that scarce tax dollars are being spent in an effective manner.

To give this assurance, the Canadian wheat value chain needs to present governments with a clear strategic plan for research. We took a big step in that direction in Saskatoon.

It is not just governments that benefit from a strategic vision. Producers are funding about 30 per cent of public research through their provincial checkoffs. This is a critical investment in the future of the industry. A national strategic research plan will help provincial organizations achieve their own priorities, and help ensure their members’ needs are being met.

Strategic research must consider the fact there are two customers for innovation. Farmers must benefit from new varieties developed for Canadian growing conditions. If farmers don’t benefit, innovation will never make it to the field, and investment will be lost. But farmers are not the only customers for innovation. Research and variety development must also take into account the needs of end-use customers. What do customers want to buy from Canada? What are those unique quality characteristics from Canada that gain a premium from both international and domestic customers?

This is why shippers and exporters were invited to participate and present to a group of researchers. Marketers provide a critical link back to the end-use customer. It seems rather obvious that we must produce innovation that our customers want to buy, if we are going to be successful. We cannot develop a strong plan for research in Canada without including the people who interact with our customers on a daily basis.

Research is about more than variety development. Research also includes work on determining the agronomic practices that will get the most out of new developments, as well as developing new ways of combating diseases and insects. Strategic research includes collaboration across the country on extension and communication of research results. After all, the greatest advancement in the world will not mean much if it does not move out of the laboratory and into farmers’ fields. The value chain as a whole is working on setting the key priorities in each of these critical areas.

Canada has a strong history of public research. Many parts of the country were opened to settlement because of public agricultural research. We should not forget this history and the lesson it teaches for the future. However, public research is not carried out in isolation.

If Canada can do a better job of co-ordinating public, private, and producer investments than our competitors like Australia or the U.S., funds will flow into our industry. We can become the first choice for investment opportunities if we ensure funding from each source is complementary.

The recently announced partnership between Canterra Seeds, Alberta Wheat Commission, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada serves as an example of new ways of bringing forward innovation in Canada. The new public/private/producer partnership takes advantage of the strengths of all three organizations. The result is additional investment in innovation and variety development in Canada and more choice for Canadian farmers. Successful strategic research planning will help foster more partnerships like this in the future.

Ensuring cereal grains are profitable for all involved is the ultimate goal of strategic investments in innovation. We want to see farmers choose to grow cereals because of strong profit margins. We want to see investment in innovation flow into Canada and our cereals industry because of a strong return on this investment. We want to see our customers coming back year after year because Canada consistently delivers what they want.

This is how long-run success will be measured.

The post Getting our research priorities right appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Saskatchewan-based research project is designed to improve productivity and profitability for wheat farmers.

The $8.8-million project, titled Canadian Triticum Applied Genomics (CTAG2), is being led by Curtis Pozniak of the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre and Andrew Sharpe of the National Research Council Canada and will combine the expertise of genomic researchers and wheat breeders to improve genetic gain.

“This is incredibly important research right now, as wheat is one of the world’s most fundamental food crops and food security has become a major global concern,” said Saskatchewan wheat chairman Bill Gehl. “Currently global wheat production needs to increase to meet growing global demands. This type of research will help Saskatchewan wheat farmers meet this increasing demand.”

Other co-funders of the project include the Agriculture Development Fund/Sask­atchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Manitoba Agricul­ture, Genome Canada, Viterra, SeCan, University of Guelph, DuPont Pioneer, Bayer CropScience, the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC), and Manitoba Agriculture.

Pozniak of the University of Saskatchewan’s Crop Development Centre is leading the CTAG2 team, with scientists participating from four Canadian research institutions: The National Research Council Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, University of Guelph, and the University of Regina.

A major goal of the CTAG2 project is to develop a “breeder-friendly” genotyping platform to allow whole genome selection for agronomically important traits. The end result will be a useful tool for wheat breeders to enable development of improved cultivars that are more productive, resistant to disease and pests, and resilient to heat and drought stresses.

The post Farm groups announce funds for wheat genomics research appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“Agriculture is changing, we need to cater to the international markets and Cigi has always been known for the testing, developing work it does,” said Manitoba’s Minister of Agriculture Ron Kostyshyn.

“These laboratories are what bring out the best in our grains,” he said.

The cash comes from Grain Innovation Hub, a joint federal-provincial initiative announced last May. It was established to provide funding for grain research and development in the province.

Cigi CEO JoAnne Buth said the money will be used to purchase more than 20 pieces of equipment, including a Ferkar Mill — a one-stage mill that mills pulses and other crops. It will also increase capacity and allow for better process control, she said.

“But one of the big pieces we’re getting is the BoMill, which is actually almost at commercial scale, so we’re currently exploring some opportunities to put it into a commercial situation where we can bring people in and commercial partners could be using it on a regular basis,” Buth said, adding it will be the first of its kind in Manitoba.

Previously Cigi researchers had to travel to the University of Saskatchewan to use a Swedish-designed BoMill, which sorts wheat using near-infrared spectroscopy.

A smaller, lab-size version of the BoMill will also be installed on site.

A Mixolab, extensograph, grain-cooking system and other technologies will also be added to Cigi’s arsenal.

“We are very excited about the work that this investment will allow us to do,” said Rex Newkirk, the institute’s vice-president of research and innovation. “This wide range of equipment will give us a huge opportunity to add value to the crops we work with.”

Fitting the equipment in might be a bit of a tight squeeze, but Buth noted that Cigi is continuing to look toward expanding its facility.

“So this is Phase 1 for us, Phase 2 will be looking at some expansion, whether that money comes from industry or from federal or provincial levels,” she said. “But we’re not actively looking for funding for a move right now, not until we nail down whether or not we stay here and expand our facility, or whether we move to a purpose-built facility.”

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