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Sask. rolls out strategic programs

Saskatchewan has signed its bilateral agreement on farm supports with Ottawa and announced its strategic initiatives program for the next five years.

Agriculture minister David Marit, with federal rural economic development minister Gudie Hutchings, announced the $485 million spending plans under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership March 20. It takes effect April 1 and represents the non-business risk management portion of the policy framework.

About $89.4 million will be spent each year, compared to $71.2 million per year in the last agreement.

“It’s a 25 percent increase over the last five years,” Marit said.

Half of that increase goes toward the new Resilient Agriculture Landscapes Program and the other half is spread among the other initiatives.

“It’s to look at water quality, soil health and biodiversity, and we’ll have some overlap,” he said of RALP, which focuses largely on livestock.

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Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.