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The Rural Voice, 1983-02, Page 6UWO AIMS RESEARCH TOWARD HARDIER CASH CROPS by Alice Gibb The University of Western Ontario (UWO) is noted for many things, from its imitation -Gothic architecture to its champion football team, the Mustangs and its internationally recognized facul- ties of medicine, law and business. It's equally safe to say if there's one thing the university hasn't been particu- larly noted for, it's agricultural research. That's been the realm of the University of Guelph and the province's agricul- tural colleges. As a matter of fact, UWO doesn't offer any courses on its curri- culum that go under the title agricul- ture. But the school's faculty is increas- ingly invading fields thought to be the domain of either Agriculture Canada researchers or of the faculties of agri- cultural schools. One of UWO's more important re- search projects is aimed at eventually breeding new generations of hardier cash crops better able to withstand cooler temperatures and shorter grow- ing seasons. The three plant scientists studying the characteristics of cash crops which winter -over are Don Hayden, officially a pigment protein physiologist; Norman Hunter, a protein chemist and Bill Hopkins, a photobiologist. The two-year old project is doing very basic research into the physiology and biochemistry of cereal crops. The crops the team is concentrating on are puma rye, known as the hardiest of the cereal grains, or as Dr. Hopkins says, "what- ever it's got, it's got good"; winter wheat and the newer crop, triticale. Project co-ordinator Don Hayden says right now, Canada's scientists are at the limit of research in creating cold - resistant crops. For example, he points out, "wheat hasn't moved any further north since the early 1900's." Canadian plant breeders have manipulated the gene pool almost as far as they can without additional research. The UWO team hopes their work will lead to the introduction of new genes, and eventually to the engineering of a variety of food crops from corn to peanuts that are more cold -resistant and better suited to the vagaries of the Canadian climate. If the scientists, and research assis- PG. 6 THE RURAL VOICE, FEBRUARY 1983 Dr. Norman Hunter works in the laboratory of UWO'S Natural Sciences Building with some of the crops being studied to discover what characteristics allow them to winter -over. (Western News photo) tants working with them, can isolate characteristics allowing crops like win- ter wheat and puma rye to withstand temperatures as low as four degrees Celsius, this information can be turned over to plant breeders. Then they can reproduce these hardy characteristics in today's warm weather crops. Research like the plant scientists are conducting at UWO doesn't come cheaply. Since, in Dr. Hayden's words, "one experiment can run up to several hundreds of dollars," the team needed some definite funding commitments before tackling the project. The university's own Academic De- velopment Fund provided a $40,000 start-up grant, with the money used to purchase the low temperature growth chambers which are such an important part of the research. Then the federal government body, the National Science and Engineering Research Council pro- vides another $50,000 annually in oper- ating grants. The research team antici- pates even more funds may be needed before their work is done. The team is also quick to emphasize they couldn't tackle such an ambitious project without the university's support, and the use of its labs and equipment, a built-in, continuing contribution. Since the research the scientists are tackling is so basic, the team knows there won't be any sudden, overnight discoveries. Instead, the scientists see their work as a longterm, ongoing project, possibly extending over 10 to 15 years. Even when they find the answers they're looking for, they won't be immediately handing farmers some wonderful new super crop that can survive the worst of Ontario's cold snaps.