Company Overview

Overview:

The Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre(ECORC)- Ottawa develops new varieties of corn, wheat, barley, oats and soybeans for Eastern Canada; and biosystematic information and land resource management systems for sustainable production throughout Canada.

At ECORC, more than 70 scientists and 240 support employees work in multidisciplinary teams, in partnership with national and international public and private sector organizations. Research and development programs are focused in three areas:

CROPS Research goals are to:

-Develop winter wheat, oats and barley, with disease resistance and value-added seed traits. -Develop soybeans and corn with early maturity, and tolerance to cool growing conditions.

• Develop supporting technologies for varietal development such

as crop transformation, haploidy, market assisted selection, and disease diagnosis. -Advance knowledge of the regulation, expression, isolation and characterization of genes for useful genetic modification of plants.

• Define alternative land management practices relating crop

adaptation advances to soil and atmospheric conditions.

LAND AND AGRONOMY Research and development goals are to:

• Cooperate with a network of land resource specialists to

maintain and upgrade national soil and climate databases.

• Develop new knowledge in soil water, climate and crop-yield

modelling; land use, cropping systems and remote sensing; soil quality; and the dynamics of agri-environmental indicators.

• Develop methodology to evaluate emerging environmental, soil

conservation, land resource quality, and lands resource availability issues.

SYSTEMATICS ENTOMOLOGY/MYCOLOGY/BOTANY AND BIODIVERSITY Research and development goals are to:

• Develop identification aids, computerized and molecular

information systems and predictive classification schemes for plants, insects and fungi.

• Identify crop and microbial genetic resources to support crop

breeding programs.

• Collaborate with national integrated pest management and

biological control programs.

• Provide information essential to protect Canada's borders from

invasive pests and support the Canadian strategy on biodiversity.

• Create and maintain collections and advanced databases on the

systematic of plants, insects and fungi.

Environmental Profile

Projects Undertaken: A 5 year Great Lakes Water Quality project, on pesticide persistence and leaching in Great Lakes Watershed soils; a 3 year St. Lawrence River Ecosystems project, on heavy metal ion binding and leaching in agricultural soils on the Raisin River Watershed; environmental indicators for agricultural ecosystems; a report on the health of Canada's agricultural soils; biotechnology for crop protection and crop variety development.

Scientific Network: Part of the Research Branch network of Centres of Excellence in Agri-Food research across Canada; collaboration with many University Departments; linkages with other Federal Departments and Provincial Governments; various agreements with private sector companies.

Sector(s): Agriculture; environmental Products & Services.

Company Information

Additional Details

Legal Name: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Number of Employees: 450

Total Sales ($CDN): $100,000 - $200,000

Contacts

Services

• Biotechnology
• Land Use Modelling And Expert Systems

  We are developing crop-yield modelling, land use, crop systems and remote sensing, soil quality indicated measurement. We have the ability to customized such model to client needs.

Products

• Corn Inbreds; Soybean, Wheat, Barley & Oat Varieties
• Environmental Products And Services
• Identification Aids

  Identification aids, computerized and molecular information systems of insets, acari, plants and fungi. We are developing identification aids, computerized and molecular information systems and predictive classification schemes for plants, insects and fungi. We identify crop and microbial genetic resources to support crop breeding and can provide the expertise required to support biological control work.

• Molecular Plant Disease Diagnostic Technologies

  We can provide molecular identification tools to identify plant disease. We can also collaborate or develop under contract new identification tools.

• On-line Micro Extraction And Chemical Analysis Of Slurried Solids By Hplc

  A bench scale laboratory method that distinguishes between recoverable and bound residue forms of heavy metals in soils, sediments, or composted wastes was developed at the former Centre for Land and Biological Resources Research (CLBRR), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) by adapting the method already in use for organic chemical contaminants.

  The experimental method combines on-line micro extraction and chemical analysis of slurried solids by HPLC, with off-line micro filtration of the slurries followed by HPLC chemical analysis. The molecular level mechanisms can then be investigated; of the free, recoverable bound, and bound residue forms of the heavy metals. Bench scale laboratory tests can indicate both the short term and long term remediation effectiveness of potential extractants, the effect of metal ion contact time on the extent of its conversion to unrecoverable forms, and the risk of a future escape of a toxic bound residue back into an ecosystem. This type of information can be used for practical decisions about remediation strategies, the feasibilities of remediation, and the assessment of future risks before remediation contracts are signed.

  The anticipated applications include both basic research, and the production of detailed quantitative information that supports practical decisions about the remediation of soils, sediments, or composted wastes that are contaminated with toxic heavy metals. Contractors can use the test results for risk assessment, with which to avoid future litigation.

• Plant Genetic Transformation Technologies

  We are developing transformation technologies that could be used under licenses to transform corn, soybean and cereals. We are also developing enabling technologies involved in gene expression et regulation.

• Plant Marker Assisted Selection Technologies

  We are developing molecular selection technologies that could be used under licenses.

• Soil Conservation - Crop Productivity Expert System.

  Expert conservation farmers have an experience-based, in-depth knowledge of sustainable agricultural production within their ecological and social environment. Agricultural research institutions have extensive information on land resource areas, which consist of landscapes with similar ecoclimatic characteristics and production potentials. Long-term research trials dealing with the effects of soil degradation on crop production and the effects of management practices on sustainable agricultural production are also available. However, none of these information bases individually can provide full decision support pertaining to the biophysical and socioeconomic sustainability of agricultural production systems.

  Expert systems have been useful in synthesizing existing research knowledge to help in decision making. Expert systems are computer programs that exhibit, within specific areas, a degree of expertise in problem solving comparable to that of human experts. Although there has been a significant increase in the number of expert systems developed for agricultural applications, none of the systems developed to date incorporate the knowledge of innovative conservation farmers, partly due to the difficulty in representing such knowledge. Researchers at the former Centre for Land and Biological Resources Research (CLBRR), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) have developed an expert system, that integrates expert farmer knowledge, land resource information and scientific research, to provide farmers with decision support on soil conservation and crop productivity relationships.

  The prototype expert system provides diagnosis and prognosis of soil degradation, crop yields, remedial agricultural practices and productivity improvements for the agroenvironment in which it was developed. Moreover, since the management practices identified by farmers were based on tradeoffs between the cost of remedial practices and that of soil degradation, the expert system can serve as a tool for interactively choosing from among different practices for cost-effective treatment of soil degradation. Experience from developing the expert system indicates the possibility of developing similar systems for other agroenvironments. Furthermore, the development methodology is equally applicable to issues of socioeconomic as well as biophysical sustainability.

Additional Information