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NEWS BITES THAT MATTER
Conversations in Sustainability
BASF Canada has launched a five part series entitled ‘Conversations in Sustainability’. Each online video features a member of the urban community who was paired up with a Canadian farmer to ask questions about agriculture. Questions ranged from topics on pesticide use, how food is grown, how farm finances work and personal decisions farmers make about their farming practices. Ontario grain farmer Steve Twynstra was involved in the video developed around the theme of ‘Farming for the Next Generation’. Twynstra explained to Gerry Johnston, a registered nurse from London, Ontario, how the latest technology will benefit his 11 year-old son’s future in farming.
BASF Canada hopes that these videos will help to bridge the gap between the consumer and the producer and the perceptions of sustainable farming. More information is available at ontariograinfarmer.ca; and you can watch the videos on the BASF Canada YouTube page: www.youtube.com/ BASFAgSolutions. •
Federal government unveils details of Growing Forward 2 Programs
The details of the AgriMarketing and AgriCompetitiveness Programs under Canada’s new agricultural policy framework Growing Forward 2 have been announced. These programs complement the AgriInnovation Program which was unveiled in December 2012.
The AgriMarketing Program, which comes into effect on April 1, 2013, is now accepting applications. The new program – a five-year, $341-million initiative — is designed to help industry improve its capacity to adopt assurance systems, such as food safety and traceability, to meet consumer and market demands. It will also support industry in maintaining and seizing new markets for their products through branding and promotional activities.
The new $115-million AgriCompetitiveness Program will make targeted investments to help the sector adapt to rapidly changing and emerging global and domestic opportunities and issues, respond to market trends and enhance business and entrepreneurial capacity.
The AgriMarketing and Agri-Competitiveness Programs are in addition to the $698-million AgriInnovation Program which will focus on investments to expand the sector’s capacity to develop and commercialize new products and technologies. The AgriInnovation Program began accepting applications in December 2012. All three programs come into effect on April 1, 2013.
Growing Forward 2 represents a $3-billion investment over five years in strategic initiatives for innovation, competitiveness and market development, in addition to a full and comprehensive suite of business risk management programs that will continue to help farmers withstand severe market volatility and disasters. •
Monsanto Canada on track to launch the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System
Monsanto has received full regulatory approval in Canada for Genuity® Roundup Ready® 2 Xtend soybeans, the industry’s first biotech product with herbicide tolerance to both glyphosate and dicamba.
This new soybean product will be a component of the new Roundup Ready® Xtend Crop System which will combine Genuity® Roundup Ready® 2 Xtend with glyphosate and dicamba herbicide products, providing soybean growers with greater flexibility in weed control to help maximize yield potential.
Dicamba is a group 4 chemistry, something previously not available to soybean growers. Dicamba is known to provide effective control of over 95 annual and biennial weed species and suppression of over 100 perennial broadleaf and woody species world wide.
Field testing of Genuity® Roundup Ready® 2 Xtend soybeans conducted by Monsanto Canada and academics at the University of Guelph over the past two years indicates the application of dicamba prior to planting soybeans, or applying dicamba in-crop, has proven effective on glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed and Canada fleabane populations. This new dicamba option in soybeans will also offer improved control of other populations of herbicide-resistant weeds, such as those that are resistant to group 2 or group 5 chemistry, that are also known to exist in Canada.
The dicamba-tolerant trait within Genuity® Roundup Ready® 2 Xtend soybeans is stacked with the proven yield performance from Monsanto’s Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybean technology and pending key global import and regulatory approvals, is anticipated for commercial release for the 2014 growing season. •
