2004 Compendium of OMAFRA Funded Environment Research

2004 Compendium of OMAFRA Funded Environment Research - (PDF 1.10 MB)

Table of Contents

• Compendium of OMAF Funded Environment Research - printable PDF format
• Foreword

Section One: OMAFRA Programs Supporting Environment Research

• OMAFRA-University of Guelph Agri-Food Research Program
• New Directions Research Program
• Healthy Futures for Ontario Agriculture

Section Two: Abstracts

• Air Quality (AQ)
• Soil Quality (SQ)
• Water Quality (WQ)
• Other Environment Related Research (EN)

Foreword

Safe water, clean air, and a pristine environment are highly valued by Ontarians. The Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAFRA) values them highly as well, and dedicates significant resources to study and minimize the effects of agricultural practices on the quality of our water, soil and air. Innovative research provides tools to the industry for the production of safe and nutritious food through sustainable and environmentally friendly production practices.

In order to make information on environmental research results more easily accessible to the industry, other researchers, and the interested public, OMAFRA has put together this Compendium of OMAFRA Funded Environment Research. It provides abstracts of 98 research projects carried out between 2002 and 2007.

Through the OMAFRA / UofG Agreement, the New Directions Research Program, and the Healthy Futures Program, OMAFRA has invested a total of $6.1 million in the research projects reported in this compendium. Together, these provincial investments have leveraged an additional $16 million in financial and in-kind support from private industry and other research institutions. These programs have also contributed to the training of highly qualified personnel by funding a total of 82 Ph.D.s, masters and undergraduate students.

For your convenience this Compendium is divided into 3 sections to allow for greater search capabilities and ease of information dissemination.

Section One: OMAFRA Programs Supporting Environmental Research

• In this section you will find descriptions of the different OMAFRA funding programs, projects supported under each program and the name of the lead researcher for each project.

Section Two: Abstracts

• This section contains detailed abstracts of the supported projects categorized into four areas; air quality (AQ), water quality (WQ), soil quality (SQ) and ‘other environmental research’ (EN). These abstracts also include the name and contact information for the lead researcher(s), name of collaborating researchers, project duration and project identifier.

Section Three: Quick Search

• This section allows you to cross reference key words (e.g. ‘climate change’, greenhouse gases) to supported projects.

Additionally, funding program descriptions, executive summaries of funded projects and researcher contact information can be found electronically.

For further information on any project listed in this compendium you are encouraged to contact the lead researcher directly.

Finally we would like to recognize and thank the many researchers, universities, federal government departments, provincial government ministries and industry organizations that partner with OMAFRA to fund, perform and/or communicate environmental research. This collaboration has helped generate leading-edge research and solutions that will benefit the Ontario agri-food industry and the residents of Ontario for years to come.

Dr. Maurice Bitran
Director, Innovation and Risk Management Branch
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food

Charles Lalonde
Director, Resources Management,
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food

Section One: OMAFRA Programs Supporting Environmental Research

OMAFRA-University of Guelph Agri-Food Research Program

OMAFRA, through its agreement with the University of Guelph, funds approximately $33.6 million of agri-food research annually. Research is organized in five program areas: Resources Management and Environment, Animals, Plants, Sustainable Rural Communities and Food. The first four of these program areas include projects which address environmental issues identified by stakeholders through the Ontario Agricultural Services Coordinating Committee and its sub-committees.

The total investment in 2003-04 by OMAFRA in environmental related research at the University of Guelph through these programs is close to $5.1 million. The researchers used this funding to leverage significant additional funding from a range of government and industry partners.

Further details on the research program can be obtained from the University of Guelph website.

Table 1: Environment related projects funded through the Resources Management and Environment Program

¹ Jointly funded with the Sustainable Rural Communities program
² Jointly funded with the Animals program
³ Jointly funded with the Plants program

Animal Research Program

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAFRA) supports Animal related research through an agreement with the University of Guelph. Under this agreement the University manages and operates the research programs required by OMAFRA including research for the aquaculture, beef, dairy, equine, poultry, pork and sheep industries. Research priorities are identified by OMAFRA and are developed through the Ontario Agricultural Services Coordinating Committee (OASCC) structure. As part of the overall OASCC, the Ontario Animal Research & Services Subcommittees (OARSC) work to assess and establish research priorities in order to address research gaps and to redirect and /or re-allocate current research effort. 12 species subcommittees participate in OARSC.

Table 2: Environment related projects funded through the Animals Research program.

Plants Research Program

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food (OMAFRA) supports Plant related research under the broad headings of field crops, horticultural crops and pest management through an agreement with the University of Guelph. All research projects are required to address priorities identified by the Ministry. Ministry priorities are developed through the Ontario Agricultural Services Coordinating Committee (OASCC) structure. The Ontario Horticultural Crops Research and Services Committee, the Ontario Field Crops Research and Services Committee and the Ontario Pest Management Research and Services Committee provide plant related input. Members of these committees represent the agri-food industry, academia and government.

Table 3: Environment related projects funded through the Plants Research Program

Sustainable Rural Communities

The overall objective of the SRC Research Program is to create a system of intelligence for addressing vital research issues in rural Ontario that have been defined by residents and organizational representatives as significant for community prosperity.

Table 4: Environment related projects funded through the Sustainable Rural Communities Research Program

¹ Jointly funded with the Resources Management and Environment program

New Directions Research Program

The New Directions Research Program is an open competitive research fund managed by the Innovation and Risk Management Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Since 1999, the program (formerly called the Special Research Program) has committed $6.9 million to 138 research projects at a wide variety of public and private research institutions.

The purpose of the program is to stimulate the sustainable growth and competitiveness of Ontario’s agri-food and rural sectors through investment in innovative and high quality research in partnership with industry, rural communities/organizations, other levels of government and research institutions. A wide variety of research priorities, including environmental issues, are addressed through this program. Research priorities supported by New Directions are established and published annually. Details on the program including summaries of funded projects can be found at: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/research/new_directions/index.html

Table 5: Environment related projects funded through New Directions/Special Research Program.

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Healthy Futures for Ontario Agriculture

The four-year, $90 million Healthy Futures for Ontario Agriculture program was aimed at maintaining and building on the success of Ontario’s agri-food industry.

Program focus was on encouraging the agri-food industry to: enhance the safety and quality of Ontario food products, capitalize on marketing and export opportunities and improve rural water quality and make efficient use of rural water resources

The program invested in three main program initiatives:

• Rural Water Quality focused on implementing best management practices or technologies in the agri-food sector to safeguard water quality and quantity in rural Ontario
  
• Field to Fork Food Safety and Quality provided funding and access to technical expertise to assist the agri-food sector in maintaining and expanding its capacity to meet domestic and export market demands with regard to food safety and quality
  
• Healthy Futures Innovation supported applied research, new product development, expanded market access and the creation or adoption of technologies, practices and processes that enhance food safety and water quality. This includes implementing new verification and reporting systems.

Table 6: Environment related research projects funded through Healthy Futures for Ontario Agriculture