Nufarm has announced a large research partnership with Old College in Alberta worth a million dollars over five years.
The crop protection company says it will establish its first technology development station in Canada at the college, which will include up to 80 acres of land for trials, as well as access to Olds College’s expertise and leadership in ag tech research.
The announcement was made in conjunction with the annual AgSmart expo hosted by Olds College this week.
The company says the partnership establishes a framework for the development and testing of agriculture technologies, plot trials of chemistry and biological technologies, seed genetics, agronomic training, and applied research projects related to smart agricultural technology.
“Nufarm is in a position where we’re growing, we’re changing our portfolio…and that requires a lot of intricate research,” says Nufarm’s Graham Collier, in the interview below. “We do hundreds of trials a year in Canada right now, and this is going to allow us to establish a bricks-and-mortar site at Olds College, and bring some of our research in-house to Nufarm.”
Some of the funding will also go towards research done by the college looking at best practices for applying new technologies, he explains.
“Nufarm shares our commitment to advancing agricultural innovation, and together we will harness the full potential of our Smart Ag Ecosystem. Through collaborative research, transformative education, and sustainable practices, we will shape the future of Canadian agriculture,” notes Dr. Ben Cecil, president of Olds College.
Collier says the company imagines the partnership potentially lasting much longer than the initial five-year agreement.
“It’s probably the first of a few announcements you’ll see from Nufarm on this front as we globally shift from being a more generic-type company in some cases to an agricultural innovator,” says Collier. “Our focus is on new active ingredients coming in, those new technologies coming in, and Western Canada is going to be the place where we first start looking at all of these.”
Listen to Collier’s conversation with RealAg’s Shaun Haney:
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