Feds throw money into Vineland Station's crop projects

Thursday, July 31, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

The Vineland Research and Innovation Centre’s work to study growing Asian and round Indian eggplant in greenhouses received a boost this week after the federal government announced funding of more than $1.1 million for its world crops work.

The grant money will be used for research in four vegetables – okra, sweet potatoes plus two kinds of eggplant, Asian and round Indian. Centre CEO Jim Brandle says eggplant “is a crop that we already grow in the greenhouse.” But Indian and Asian eggplant are totally new varieties that aren’t necessarily adapted for greenhouse production “so we have to go through that whole process of building a production system.”

MP Pierre Lemieux, parliamentary secretary to federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, and Niagara West-Glanbrook MP Dean Allison announced the funding for the centre’s research Wednesday during an open house. They also announced funding of more than $1.4 million for the centre to modernize its rose breeding program.

Brandle says for sweet potatoes, the research will focus on breeding and improving shorter season varieties “that have more consistent sizing and are better for processing into things like chips and French fries.” The other crop work will include variety evaluation plus on-farm trials.

The market for the four vegetable crops is “pretty strong” based on current consumption trends, he says. “Every year we get a quarter of a million new immigrants into the country and 80 per cent come from south Asia. Those particular vegetables fit into their food traditions quite nicely.”

Ontario farmers are growing a few hundred acres of the four crops now. But there’s the potential need for a few thousand acres of those four crops to be grown, especially if a year-round supply of eggplant can be established.

The funding for Vineland’s research comes from the federal industry-led Research and Development stream of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s AgriInnovation program. It’s a five-year fund with up to $698 million available and is part of Growing Forward 2, the national agricultural policy framework. BF