Zurich | Reuters — Syngenta, the Swiss agrichemicals giant owned by ChemChina, has acquired Italian biologicals group Valagro, a company with US$175 million in 2019 sales that uses natural solutions to fight pests and diseases and to improve crops. Syngenta said in a statement Tuesday the acquisition positioned its crop protection business as a key […] Read more
Syngenta buys biologics group Valagro
Study shows how U.S. farm landscapes could be reshaped by climate
Plains' wheat belt would see 'hollowing-out'
London | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Climate change could render swaths of agricultural land largely useless for farming in the U.S. South, and force Midwestern farmers to move corn and soybeans elsewhere as crop yields decline, researchers said on Monday. The profits of growing six key crops are set to fall by almost a third […] Read more
Rookie MLA named New Brunswick ag minister
Blaine Higgs' Tories sworn in as majority government
A politically-active retired New Brunswick schoolteacher is the province’s new minister for agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries. Premier Blaine Higgs, whose new Progressive Conservative cabinet was sworn in Tuesday in Fredericton, appointed Margaret Johnson, the newly elected MLA for the northwestern electoral district of Carleton-Victoria, to handle the ag and fisheries files. In last month’s provincial […] Read more
Happy accident: Researchers discover promising new seed treatment
How it works is still a mystery, but new compound boosts germination, root development, and resistance
Reading Time: 5 minutes Good things generally don’t happen by accident in science — they’re the result of countless hours of trial and error, replication and peer review. However, University of Saskatchewan researchers may be looking at the closest thing to a scientific miracle: A natural seed treatment that increases germination in just about any crop you can name, […] Read more
Canada not benefiting from CETA, Bibeau says
Ex-premiers write to Ottawa with critique of EU's continued trade barriers
Canada is not benefiting from the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union (EU), federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau grants. Expected to spur $1.5 billion in new agri-food exports, the free trade deal has fallen short of those targets since its implementation in 2017. In a letter Monday to Prime Minister Justin […] Read more
FBN cuts yearly membership fee to zero
Ag e-commerce firm offers free accounts to farmers
E-marketplace Farmers Business Network (FBN) has disposed of the annual membership fee that allowed members access to its various buying groups and services. California-based FBN, which has operated in the U.S. since 2014 and expanded to Canada in 2017, announced Tuesday (Sept. 15) its farmer members may now have “access to a select range of […] Read more
Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show looks to lock in land base
GFM plans to buy research land for eastern Discovery Farm
As Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show goes digital this week, its operator is preparing to secure its real-world footprint in southern Ontario and put that real estate to year-round work. Glacier FarmMedia and the Ontario government on Tuesday announced their intent to work toward a land deal with the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO), which […] Read more
Feds back autonomous weederbot’s Halifax manufacturer
ACOA funding to support field-level trials
The federal government’s economic development agency for Atlantic Canada is putting up money for a new round of on-the-ground tests of a self-guided field-weeding robot. Halifax MP Andy Fillmore on Wednesday announced a $550,000 repayable investment from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s (ACOA) Regional Economic Growth Through Innovation program for Halifax-based Nexus Robotics. Nexus, the […] Read more
Ag journal Small Farm Canada under new ownership
Victoria-based publishers retiring
Online ag information company Farms.com has picked up farm journal Small Farm Canada and its sister publication for the mobile heavy-duty repair sector, Service Truck. Farms.com, which operates out of offices at Guelph, Ont. and Ames, Iowa, announced Thursday it has bought the two titles from Victoria-based Southern Tip Publishing, whose partnership group is retiring […] Read more
Conservatives look to southern Ontario for new ag critic
O'Toole promotes deputy critic Lianne Rood to first chair
The federal Conservatives’ new leader has gone to the other side of Toronto to find his new critic for agriculture and agri-food. Lianne Rood, the rookie MP for the riding of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, was named Tuesday by fellow southern Ontario MP Erin O’Toole to replace southwestern Alberta MP John Barlow as the Conservatives’ shadow minister for […] Read more
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