Province commits $15 million to U of S Global Institute for Food Security

A big funding boost is coming to the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Institute for Food Security.

The provincial government committed to provide the institute $15 million over five years to help with its work researching, developing and delivering new food sustainability methods.

“The funding for GIFS will provide $3 million each year from 2023 to 2027 to support its ongoing operations, contributing to Saskatchewan’s agriculture sector through work such as supporting crop breeding through sequencing, bioinformatics and data analytics services or technology development that facilitates commercialization of new products,” the Ministry of Agriculture said in a news release.

The Government of Saskatchewan’s growth plan calls for increasing the provincial crop production to 45 million metric tonnes by 2030, as well as boosting livestock cash receipts to $3 billion and increasing agri-food exports to $20 billion.

Saskatchewan surpassed its export goal in 2023, with the value of provincial agri-food exports hitting $20.3 billion last year, despite drought-like conditions hampering farmers in many areas.

“Investing in research activities undertaken by GIFS and similar institutions is the first step toward enabling Saskatchewan’s producers to not only stay competitive, but proving that they remain among the most productive, innovative and sustainable in the world,” David Marit, Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister, said in the release.

Steve Webb, the institute’s CEO, said the new funding is an investment into agricultural innovations.

“The investment will enable collaboration with partners on our market-facing programs, including accelerated breeding, biomanufacturing and policy and regulatory — maximizing Saskatchewan and Canada’s sustainable production of safe and nutritious food for a growing world,” Webb said in the release.

University of Saskatchewan president Peter Stoicheff said the university has a long history of developing advancements in the agricultural industry, and the new funding will help that work continue into the future.