The Rural Voice, 1993-04, Page 24lternative
crops
Ridgetown College shows students there just may
be profitable alternative crops for niche markets
Each spring Ontario's ag schools
like Ridgetown College of
Agricultural Technology turn out a
new crop of future farmers: the
people who will till the soil and plant
the seeds. Gordon Scheifele sees his
job as planting a few seeds of his
own in the minds of these students,
seeds that might get them looking at
alternatives that might help them stay
on the farm.
Scheifele is a research scientist
and instructor at Ridgetown College
who was brought to the college two
and a half years ago specifically to
develop a course on alternative crops.
His interest has grown in developing
by Keith Roulston
alternatives, particularly for the
Essex -Kent area that is so dependent
on cash crops of seed corn,
commercial corn, commercial
soybeans and vegetables, all
vulnerable to instability in prices.
"There's a need to consider small
acreage crops, niche market crops, to
diversify one's income." Though he
is specifically concerned with the
area immediately around the college,
many of the crops he has been
studying can be grown in other
southern Ontario locations.
As he began to study literature to
prepare his course, Scheifele realised
he had never even heard of some of
the crops, let alone felt or touched
them. He decided he should be
growing examples of the crops so
20 THE RURAL VOICE
students could see the plants first
hand, see what they look like and
how to grow them.
He turned first to R. C. Roy at the
Delhi Research Station of Agriculture
Canada. At Delhi there has been
considerable research going on to
develop alternatives to tobacco as a
lucrative cash crop. He looked first at
evening primrose, kanaf and stevia.
Kanaf is a tropical plant, a close
relative of marijuana, which is
gaining acreage in the southern U.S.
the stem, some for cardboard and
some for high-quality paper. It's an
annually renewable source of fibre
for paper. As far north as Kentucky
and Missouri there have been special
paper -making plants set up to process
kanaf.
With present varieties, however,
kanaf just can't be grown this far
north, Scheifele concluded. "We're
not going to be able to grow enough
tonnage to make it feasible for
Ontario." At Ridgetown they were,
Flats of evening primrose seedlings show students what this potentially
profitable crop looks like. Students are encouraged to look at alternatives.
The plant is grown for the fibre in its
stem which can be used to replace
wood pulp in paper making,
producing a very high quality paper.
There are different quality fibres in
however, able to grow kanaf and get
it to flower and set seed, the first time
that has been accomplished in
Ontario as far as he knows. It's an
encouragement, he says. If emphasis