The Ontario Bean Growers are helping to fund a Weed Management Professorship position based at the Ridgetown campus of the University of Guelph.
“With the retirement of Dr. Peter Sikkema in 2024 this funding will not only ensure weed research continues for dry beans but will also support the Huron Research Station for the next 10 years,” the Ontario Bean Growers (OBG) said in a release.
Funding for the OBG Assistant Professorship in Weed Sciences faculty position includes $660,000 from the OBG, as well as an anonymous donor, bringing the total contribution to $2 million.
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The announcement was made in partnership with the University of Guelph during OBG’s annual general meeting in Stratford Feb. 20.
Additionally, the University of Guelph has announced the renewal of the Dry Bean Agronomy and Pest Management faculty position at Ridgetown Campus. Collectively, these faculty hires ensure that the U of G continues to be among the world’s best in dry bean agronomy and weed management research, the U of G said in a separate release.
The new OBG Professorship in Weed Management and the Professorship in Dry Bean Agronomy and Pest Management fill the vacancies left by Dr. Peter Sikkema and the Ontario Agricultural College’s Chris Gillard, who will retire later in 2024.
The hired faculty will continue conducting research at the Ontario Crops Research Centre sites in Huron and Ridgetown.
Although this funding is tied to the Weed Management Professorship, the investment will ensure bean breeding, disease and agronomy research continue as well, the OBG said.
The Huron Research Station, near Exeter, will also see a re-investment by the University of Guelph as they recognize the importance OBG places on this research station. The station operates out of the Ridgetown Campus and “is a critically important site for practical, outcome-based field crop research,” the OBG said.
Ontario’s nearly 1000 dry bean farmers produce a combined average of more than 100,000 acres of kidney, white pea, black turtle, romano and adzuki beans, with up to 90 per cent of the crop exported to international markets.
The Ontario Crops Research Centre is owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario and managed by U of G through the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, a collaboration between the Government of Ontario and U of G.
