Syngenta's Manitoba agricultural research facility focuses on the future

Date:07-28-2016

The Syngenta Grow More Experience site is located southeast of Portage la Prairie at Elm River Research Farm, and is bringing advancements to seeds and the fight against disease and pests. The facility screens soybeans, cereal and canola genetics. Agronomic service rep for Manitoba Doug Fotheringham explains how they're investing in the future fungicide market.

"Our fungicide portfolio is looking quite exciting," he says. "Moving forward, we've got new products coming out in multiple crops. One of the ones coming out for 2017 is a product called Trivapro with three active ingredients... including a new active for us called Solatenol. So it's an exciting space to be in right now."

He says they also have a fairly significant cereal breeding program based out of Manitoba.

"A lot of our wheat varieties are bred here in the valley and produced for Western Canada. Our efforts are in all the different classes. So, the Hard Reds and the CPS's and the new Canadian Northern Hard Red class as well."

In the last two years, Syngenta has also more than doubled their investment in soybean research and development for Western Canada, which soybean breeder Jake Delheimer explains.

"We've gone from just a handful of locations testing within Manitoba to actually testing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan," he says. "Now we're looking at hundreds and even thousands of new varieties that can potentially have a commercial launch and be fit for growers in Western Canada."

Marc Brown is a soybean research associate, and explains important points to consider when breeding for Western Canadian farmers. He says breeding out here requires the researchers to focus on yielding, then fitting maturity and other disease traits typical for the province, such as resistance for phytophthora root rot. Brown notes Syngenta's DNA molecular technology handles the disease quite easily. He says white mold in soybeans is also a focus. A white mold disease screen exists at the Portage farm. Another disease they're dealing with is abiotic stress, or iron deficiency chlorosis. A lot of the screening for that is done in the USA, but every variety they have is tested for several years for tolerance to iron uptake.