Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
Turn to the Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food (SAF) website when looking for the latest information on Saskatchewan crops. SAF has recently enriched its lentil and caraway sections with valuable new information for growers.
Provincial Specialized Crops Specialist Ray McVicar outlines some of the new content:
“There has been diversification in the lentils industry in the last few years, as demonstrated by the increased interest in red lentils. Canada has recently become an important producer and exporter of red lentil, and our website information now reflects this.”
Red lentils account for more than half the world trade in the crop, and they are sold in either whole seed or split form. Processing facilities capable of de-hulling and splitting red lentils for the world market have been built in Saskatchewan, according to the updated website information.
There have also been advancements in varieties and crop protection products for lentils, and McVicar says the information provides guidance on these developments as well.
“Another crop on which the website now focuses is caraway,” McVicar explains. “Caraway is a spice crop. It is well adapted to the more moist areas of the province in the east—the black soil zones.”
Caraway is used to flavour foods such as bread or sauerkraut. The seed contains 2.5 to 4.5 per cent essential oils. The oil is used to flavour meats, mouthwash and liqueurs. Carvone is the principal traded constituent of caraway oil (52 per cent), with limonene making up 45 per cent of the oil.
Caraway is cultivated everywhere from northern temperate to tropical climates, including northern Europe, Russia, Jamaica, India, Canada and the United States. Caraway production in Saskatchewan has ranged from 4,000 to 8,000 hectares (10,000 to 20,000 acres) from 1999 to 2005.
“Our website contains information about disease control on caraway,” says McVicar. “There is a very serious disease that affects caraway, blossom blight, which was a particular problem in Saskatchewan last year.”
McVicar believes producers should know about the breadth of information available in the crops section of the SAF website.
They can access the caraway section by looking under Crops/Special Crops/Production Information on the SAF website.
The lentils information can be accessed by looking under Crops/Pulses/Production Information on the SAF website.
For more information, contact:
Ray McVicarProvincial Specialist, Specialized Crops
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
(306) 787-4665
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