March 20, 2009
Canada invests C$8.7 million in new crop technologies
The Canadian government is investing C$8.7 million to develop technologies that will increase the industrial value of the surplus cereal straw that is now left out on the field, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Thursday (March 20).
Led by the University of Western Ontario, the Agricultural Biorefinery Innovation Network will bring together top Canadian university researchers, government experts and the private sector.
The network will develop genetically improved varieties of cereals which will be sought after not only for the value of the grain but also for the value of the straw, the agency said in a news release. It will find more efficient ways of collecting the straw and develop new technologies to extract a range of valuable material.
Funding for this project is being provided through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Agricultural Bioproducts Innovation Program, a federal funding program designed to integrate Canada's talent from universities, industry and government in order to stimulate creativity, leverage resources, reduce costs and accelerate progress towards commercialization of bioproducts and bioprocesses.
