Reading Time: 5 minutes The question of how different crop production would be if plants could fix their own nitrogen has been at the forefront of researchers’ work and stakeholders’ interests for more than 60 years. Aside from the ability of soybeans and edible beans to fix their own nitrogen, researchers have sought to find the same process for […] Read more
A new source of nitrogen for crops
Biological products like Utrisha N and Envita enable potatoes and other crops to harvest nitrogen from the air
Where did potato production land in 2022?
Despite farmer challenges such as high input costs and adverse weather conditions in many areas, Canada saw an overall increase in total production and yield numbers from 2021
Reading Time: 6 minutes For many potato farmers in Canada, 2022 was a challenging year. There were some major weather difficulties to contend with — cold, wet springs delayed planting for producers in New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba and B.C. and in some cases contributed to later harvests as well. Harvest was also held up in P.E.I. after the tail […] Read more
Gene-edited crops clear CFIA’s regulatory bar
Agency guidance puts gene editing on level of conventional breeding
Reading Time: 4 minutes Plants gene-edited for efficient use of water or nutrients or to better withstand pests or drought now won’t have to clear the same regulatory hurdles in Canada as any crops that are modified for herbicide tolerance or include foreign genes. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Wednesday announced updated guidance from the Canadian Food Inspection […] Read more
Thompson returns as P.E.I. ag minister
Ag and land ministry split; Compton not returning to cabinet
Reading Time: 2 minutes Prince Edward Island’s former agriculture minister is again its current ag minister, in a post-election cabinet shuffle by returning Premier Dennis King. Bloyce Thompson, MLA for the district of Stanhope-Marshfield since 2019 and ag minister from 2019 until last summer, was again appointed April 14 as King’s minister of agriculture, justice and public safety and […] Read more
P.E.I. ag minister, ag critics re-elected
Tories return with majority; Liberals regain official opposition
Reading Time: < 1 minute Prince Edward Island’s incumbent agriculture minister and opposition agriculture critics prevailed in Monday night’s provincial election, in which incumbent premier Dennis King’s Tories were returned with a majority. Darlene Compton, King’s agriculture minister since last summer and his incumbent deputy premier, won re-election Monday for the Progressive Conservatives in her district of Belfast-Murray River. Compton, […] Read more
McDonald’s reported laying off hundreds of corporate employees
Layoffs don't include restaurant-level workers
Reading Time: < 1 minute New York | Reuters — The number of corporate employees McDonald’s Corp. plans to lay off this week will tally in the “hundreds,” a source familiar with the burger chain’s thinking said on Monday, as the company moves forward with a previously announced restructuring. The fast-food company is closing its offices “out of respect,” and […] Read more
Potato wart survey gives clean bill of health
Fields across Canada with a history of getting seed potatoes from P.E.I. tested negative
Reading Time: 2 minutes A national survey on the watch for potato wart has come back clean. On March 13, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said results from their 2022 potato wart survey had not found any cases of the soil-borne fungus. The agency had tested nearly 1,500 soil samples from fields in British Columbia, the three Prairie […] Read more
McCain to double Alberta french fry plant capacity
Lethbridge-area plant to more than double staff count
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta’s plans to boost its irrigated acres are being met near the starting line with a major french fry producer’s plans to double the capacity of its plant there. McCain Foods announced Monday it will put up $600 million to build two new production lines for frozen french fries and potato specialty goods at its […] Read more
Adama’s lambda-cy products to be available this year
Company to continue selling Silencer, Zivata after recall
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Canadian arm of ag chem firm Adama says it’s relabelled its inventories of lambda-cyhalothrin insecticide products Silencer and Zivata and will have them available for sale to farmers in 2023. The company had said last November it wasn’t yet sure those products would be available this year under an approaching deadline following a 2021 […] Read more
Canada’s potato crop edges up in 2022
Alberta up into top spot among potato-producing provinces
Reading Time: < 1 minute MarketsFarm — Statistics Canada (StatCan) issued its potato production report Thursday, which noted a 1.5 per cent increase in the country’s crop in 2022. Across Canada, nearly 122.9 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes were harvested last year, with an average national yield of 322.3 cwt/acre on 381,351 acres. Alberta rose from third into the top […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
