The Ridgetown Campus of the University of Guelph is going to be the base for new research looking to create the perfect tomato.
Federal funding of $214,682 over the next five years will allow professor Steve Loewen to use the latest researching resources to find new varities of tomatoes that produce stronger yields for farmers.
"With the genomics age, with the sequencing, especially of tomato back in May 2012 that genetic sequence was published, along with that came all kinds of new tools that breeders have at their disposal," says Loewen, adding the money will allow for more staff and help pay for lab testing. "We can extract the DNA here in our lab without too much difficulty, there is a bit of cost, but it's not too high. But, then we need to send those DNA samples to another lab and there's a little bit higher expense for that work."
Chair of the Ontario Tomato Research Institute Phil Richards says at one time, Essex-Kent farmers were producing the same tomato yields as California.
"I think the three-year average [in California] might by 47-48 tonne, where we're right around 40 tonne. We seem to be stuck there," says Richards. "Through research, we could get a variety to make that 45 tonne."
The money is available over the five year life of the research project at which time Loewen says a new model of tomato will be ready.
