How a first generation Sask. resident helped end summer fallow

Murad Al-Katib was born in Davidson, SK to Turkish immigrants. His father was the town doctor for 50 years and his mother went from learning English watching Sesame Street with her children to becoming the community’s mayor.

Al-Katib told his story and how he ended up as the president of a $2.8 billion agriculture company to a group of engaged business leaders in Prince Albert as part of Small Business Week.

“It was a time in Saskatchewan when we were going through what I would call a massive transformation in agriculture,” he said. “The wooden elevators were closing. It was a race for the concrete terminals.”

His father, who farmed 4,400 acres of his own while being a full-time doctor, decided that one of his two sons would likely want to be a farmer as well but at 16, Al-Katib told his dad he loved the business part of agriculture rather than spending his days on the land.