Wheat research in Canada will focus on a variety of issues pertaining to yield and customer needs over the next two years, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AFFC) says in a news release on Dec. 9. The priorities were developed with input from the whole value chain from farmers to processors and exporters, with Cereals Canada and AAFC leading.
“Research and innovation are the backbone of a strong, sustainable wheat industry and I am pleased to see such collective vision and collaboration,” Marie-Claude Bibeau, minister of agriculture and agri-food, says in the release. “Being part of this visioning exercise and helping to support the identified research areas through the Government`s various programs and resources will ensure that Canada’s wheat sector remains world-class.”
The five research priorities for the wheat industry moving towards 2022 are:
- improving wheat yield
- improving wheat yield reliability
- increasing sustainability
- improving food safety
- increasing our ability to respond to consumer needs, both internationally and domestically, by enhancing the feedback mechanisms between purchasers, researchers, and producers.
The first report on priorities was released in 2017. The latest instalment refines the objectives and measurements for the five research priority themes and updates the priorities based on new understanding of the value chain, the release says.
The Economic Strategy Table set a challenging growth target of increasing agricultural and agri-food exports to exports to $75 billion annually by 2025, the release notes.
