Government in Canada invests $2.6 million to improve alfalfa growth and carbon offset system

Today, the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Marie-Claude Bibeau, announced an investment of more than $2.6 million for Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) to support three projects that will assess and improve alfalfa growth using artificial intelligence and will develop a Canadian grassland carbon offset system. Alfalfa is a key forage crop producers rely on to capture and fix carbon, return nutrients to the soil and improve soil health. “Today’s announcement is about projects that will help to develop tools farmers can use to produce and export more, higher-quality alfalfa through artificial intelligence, and to sell carbon offsets,” Bibeau said as part of the announcement, which took place at Bergerie Malvibois in Sawyerville, Que., one of the key data collection sites for the project. Funding will be allocated as follows: Up to $998,185 to develop a tool to improve yield and forage nutritive value from alfalfa fields using artificial intelligence. The tool ...