$10M greenhouse facility triples research capacity

London, ON – A new $10 million, state-of-art greenhouse facility at the Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre (SCPFRC) has officially opened. Canadian farmers stand to benefit from research focused on improving crop quality, productivity, and disease and insect resistance, to be done at a newly constructed greenhouse.

The SCPFRC, part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) national network of research centres, conducts research on integrated pest management, bio-based products and processes, genomics and biotechnology, and soil and water quality. The new facility will triple the centre’s greenhouse capacity.

Work undertaken in the new greenhouse will help researchers identify fruit tree germplasm resistant to the plum pox virus, reduce the reliance of cereal grain crops on commercial nitrogen fertilizer, use protein-trafficking technologies to develop plant-based animal vaccines as an alternative to antibiotics, improve the nutritional quality of dry beans, and develop higher-yielding, higher-quality alfalfa cultivars for the dairy and cattle industry. Collaborating in these efforts are the University of Guelph, Western University, the Ontario Bean Producers’ Marketing Board, and the Grain Farmers of Ontario, among others.