|
April 12,
2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Agri-Food Research and Development
Initiative (ARDI) is backing a national effort to develop barley
varieties resistant to fusarium head blight, the most serious barley
disease in Manitoba and responsible for millions of dollars damage
annually.
ARDI is granting $165,000 over three years to
accelerate the development of fusarium-resistant barley varieties
and increase testing for deoxynivalenol (DON), the most prevalent
toxin associated with fusarium head blight. When DON levels are
unacceptably high, barley cannot be used for malting and brewing,
food consumption, or animal feed.
“Research and innovation represents the future
success of our industry,” said Agriculture and Agri-Food and the
Canadian Wheat Board Minister Chuck Strahl. “I am particularly
excited about the ideas coming out of our science and innovation
teams that can add value to the industry.”
“Because this disease is so prevalent,
opportunities for local barley growers are being lost as Manitoba
hog producers turn to imported feed grains,” says ARDI Chair David
Gislason. “If scientists can make headway in the project, the payoff
to producers is significant and widespread – more barley from
Manitoba will be selected for the premium malting and brewing
markets, locally grown barley will be fed to the expanding hog
industry, and hog producers will no longer have to import feed grain
at considerable expense.”
“Research that improves the disease resistance
of our crops to fusarium will create benefits for both the grain and
livestock industries,” said Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural
Initiatives Minister Rosann Wowchuk. “We are pleased to support
research that advances the fight against this aggressive plant
disease and its detrimental effect on farm economies in our province
and across the country.”
Project leader Dr. Bill Legge, with the
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre in Brandon, says
the development and release of barley varieties with improved
fusarium head blight resistance is expected within the next five
years in most classes of barley. Legge has shepherded this project
for the past six years, collaborating with researchers in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, Alberta, Ontario and Prince Edward Island.
As an original funding partner, ARDI first
funded this project in 2000. Combined with this most recent funding,
ARDI has now put $465,000 toward the
collaborative project led by Dr. Legge to improve fusarium head
blight resistance in barley.
ARDI funding is partially matching funding from
the Canadian Wheat Board, which in February committed $300,000 over
three years to the project, contingent on applying for matching
support from other sources. Other funding partners for the project
include the Western Grains Research Foundation, Agriculture and
Agri-Food Canada’s Matching Investments Initiative, and
Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Development Fund through the Crop
Development Centre, University of Saskatchewan.
ARDI is a research and development granting
program of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Manitoba
Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives. It is funded through the
Agricultural Policy Framework, a federal-provincial-territorial
long-term action plan for agriculture.
For more information, please contact:
|
Dr. Bill Legge
Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada
Ph: (204) 578-3600
|
David Gislason
Chair, ARDI Council
Ph: (204) 376-5578
Cell: (204) 641-1755 |
|
-30-
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
ARDI Home -
Contact ARDI |
HomeContact
UsAbout
ManitobaDepartmentsLinksPrivacy 
