Alberta is helping farmers by modernizing rules, reducing red tape and creating new research opportunities.

Post date: Jun 16, 2020 4:29:20 PM

The Government of Alberta is helping farmers by modernizing rules, reducing red tape and creating new research opportunities.

Seed growers in Alberta will soon have access to more seed varieties and cereal research. Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Devin Dreeshen has signed a ministerial order removing Fusarium graminearum (fusarium) from the Pest and Nuisance Control Regulation, bringing Alberta in line with best practices from other provinces.

Fusarium is a fungal disease of cereal crops that affects grain development and quality. Removing it from the regulation will allow Alberta to modernize to managing the disease, rather than having zero tolerance for it.

Regulating fusarium has failed to stop its spread, which has increased across the province over the past 20 years. The Alberta Fusarium graminearum Management Plan, published in 2002, does not account for recent advances in seed treatment options that can lower detections, bringing them close to zero.

Quick facts

• Fusarium graminearum causes fusarium head blight, a serious fungal disease that affects wheat, barley, oats and corn.

  • It has been present in Alberta at very low levels since 1989. 

  • In late 2002, Alberta released the first comprehensive Alberta Fusarium graminearum Management Plan.

Related information

• Alberta Fusarium graminearum Management Plan