Spring 2022 Pulse Beat
ASSINIBOINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE (ACC) in Brandon is increasing its commitment to agricultural programming, a trajectory that includes Manitoba Pulse & Soybean Growers (MPSG).
MPSG has committed $200,000 towards ACC’s Prairie Innovation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, which is part of the college’s long- term goal of nearly tripling enrollment in its ag programs, increasing applied research and better aligning its course offerings with industry needs, including projected labour gaps. The Centre will include collaborative learning spaces, labs and much, much more.
The Centre represents a $65M capital investment — funds that the college hopes to raise through fundraising efforts, funding commitments from groups like MPSG and one-time donations.
“The Prairie Innovation Centre will not only address the current and developing gaps in the labour market in Manitoba’s agriculture industry, it will also be a hub for agricultural innovation, encouraging engagement and collaboration with industry partners to address emerging situations and issues,” said Derrick Turner, Director of Advancement and External Relations at ACC, in an article appearing in the Winnipeg Free Press.
In addition to this, MPSG has matched a $41,850 grant to support Dr. Baljeet Singh’s research focused on white mould management in dry bean crops.
“The current study is developing a real-time weather-based Fungicide Application Decision Support Tool (FADST) using the ArcGIS/ leaflet platform, weather data and a disease severity model,” said Dr. Singh. “The benefit of the FADST is that it can predict the risk of disease development using local weather conditions. A producer can enter field agronomy information to narrow down the potential severity value of the disease for his/her farm. Based on this information, the grower can decide if fungicide application would be economically beneficial. A basic framework of the FADST has been developed and tested in the last growing season (2021). The testing results suggest that the FADST is working well and able to produce the white mould development risk to local producers.”
MPSG is proud to support ACC and its commitment to furthering agriculture in Manitoba, as well as celebrate its desire to identify and address the challenges the sector is poised to face. ■
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