Ottawa, Manitoba to fund research on crop diseases affecting canola

The federal and Manitoba governments announced Thursday they will contribute more than $1.2 million “to help identify and address problems caused by canola diseases and pests” such as clubroot.

“Clubroot is a serious disease affecting crops like canola and mustard as well as cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli,” Agriculture Canada said in a release. “It restricts the flow of water and nutrients to the plant, causing wilting, stunting and yellowed plants, which ultimately result in lower yields and lower values for the producer.”

The funding will be provided under the Growing Forward 2 program, which include cost-shared programs on a 60/40 basis.

On Thursday, the governments said $250,000 will be provided in research funding and $969,000 for equipment for the canola research.

“The equipment installed at the newly-opened Pest Surveillance Initiative (PSI) lab in Winnipeg includes a polymerase chain reaction machine (qPCR), which can be used to identify low levels of clubroot in submitted soil samples, and gene sequence and analysis equipment to track how clubroot strains may change over time,” Agriculture Canada stated. “The PSI is managed by the Manitoba Canola Growers Association (MCGA) with additional support provided by the Manitoba government.”

[AG] Governments Invest in New Canola Research Lab Focused on Plant Pest Surveillance: The Canada and Manitoba… http://t.co/ll3YTpETcC

— CanadaGovNews (@CanadaGovNews) January 29, 2015

Since 2011, about 2% “of Manitoba’s fields have been sampled to detect the presence of clubroot,” Agriculture Canada noted.