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Ottawa announced funding this week for farmers looking to upgrade their farming operations to include more efficient grain drying technology.
Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced $22.2 million for 45 new projects through the Agricultural Clean Technology program - Adoption Stream.
"This program is meant to on one side invest in research and innovation to develop more energy efficient technologies or any technologies that would help us reduce emissions. But most of the program is subsidies for farmers to have the capacity to afford these technologies, including grain dryers."
She says this was a request of the sector adding they made sure that at least $50 million out of the program would be directed to grain dryers.
The latest project to be approved under the program is Geerts Farms Ltd. a 26,000-acre farm at Kamsack (Saskatchewan).
They will receive up to $2 million to purchase and install a new grain dryer and biomass boiler that is powered by locally sourced wood waste. which eliminates the use of propane in the drying process completely.
To date, the Agricultural Clean Technology program - Adoption stream has now supported 99 grain dryer projects across the country, representing a total of more than $37.1 million.
Bibeau says the overall goal is to help farmers adopt these new technologies, as they're not always affordable.
"This investment in more efficient grain drying technology will help to reduce the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions and leverage technology to be more resilient to climate change."
She points out they've seen good uptake on the program, and looks forward to opening up a new call for proposals later this spring as funding is in place to continue the Agricultural Clean Technology program.