Seed and biotech firm DuPont Pioneer plans to dial up its crop breeding and development capacity at its southern Manitoba research centre.
Pioneer’s Canadian arm said Wednesday it has budgeted $2 million for a facility expansion including a new greenhouse for its multi-crop research centre at Carman, Man., about 75 km southwest of Winnipeg.
The expansion, which Pioneer said it’s now completing, is expected to support “year-round research on high-yielding, high-performing canola hybrids, as well as expand corn and soybean breeding and testing activities,” the company said in a release.
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Canola breeding work will focus on developing “high yield and herbicide resistance as well as shatter and sclerotinia resistance traits and other Pioneer Protector traits,” Pioneer said.
“Adding state-of-the-art greenhouse capacity at our canola breeding centres is critical to enabling rapid delivery of products that meet the needs of western Canadian growers,” Pioneer research director Dave Charne said in the release.
The Carman centre also houses early-maturity corn and soybean breeding programs.
Pioneer, in its release, said it believes corn and soybeans “could become widely established rotational crops in Western Canada over the next decade” and the expansion will help “serve growers’ evolving needs.”
The Carman centre is one of three on the Prairies for the company, including facilities at Edmonton and Saskatoon.
Iowa-based Pioneer last year set up a new office for Western Canada in Saskatoon, with its eastern office still at Chatham, Ont. Pioneer’s global headquarters for canola breeding is at Georgetown, Ont. and its Canadian head office is now run out of DuPont Canada’s headquarters in Mississauga. — AGCanada.com Network
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