Features Fruit Production
Feds helping productivity on vegetable farms

February
22, 2012, Niagara Falls, Ont – New research investment will help vegetable
producers become more productive and profitable.

February
22, 2012, Niagara Falls, Ont – New research investment will help vegetable
producers become more productive and profitable.

The
federal government recently announced an investment of more than $230,000 for
the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) to discover the optimal soil
conditions for growing cover crops as part of crop rotation.

Cover
crops help replenish the soil by reducing erosion, sequestering nitrogen and
improving pest management. This two-year study will assess how cover crops such
as annual rye, wheat, oats and oilseed radishes are affected by residual
herbicides that have been applied for previous crops like soybeans or corn.

The
study will be conducted by the OPVG, which represents about 600 processing
vegetable growers across Ontario. The organization annually negotiates prices
and terms and conditions of sale for growers of 13 crops – tomatoes, cucumbers,
sweet corn, green peas, green and wax beans, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage,
beets, peppers, pumpkin, squash and lima beans.

“As
growers continue to make their farms environmentally sustainable, this project
will help determine the compatibility of potential cover crops within vegetable
production systems,” said Phil Richards, OPVG chairman, a processing tomato
grower from Dresden, Ont.