Grant: Alliance Grants

Alfalfa is the most valuable forage legume for the 'Canadian Alfalfa Seed and LeafCutting Bee' sector and the 'Beef and Dairy industries'. Alfalfa has a tremendous agronomic importance because of its high nutritional value, high forage yield, perennial growth form and biological nitrogen fixing capabilities. However, its growth under high soil salinity is limited. Development of a salt tolerant alfalfa cultivar has great value as soil salinization affected the productivity of multi- million hectares of agricultural land in the Canadian Prairies. The expansion of alfalfa production areas to the saline affected regions has a positive impact on overall alfalfa production and the increase of farm profitability as annual crop production under saline conditions is not economical. Restoration of salt-affected land using alfalfa, or its mixture is an important sustainable land management strategy to promote carbon sequestration and mitigate GHG emission. To develop a superior salt tolerant alfalfa for the industries, a partnership has been established with the Saskatchewan Alfalfa Seed Producers Development Commission (SASPDC) and the Saskatchewan Cattleman's Association (SCA). Our ultimate goals for this proposed project will be to: 1) develop a superior salt tolerant cultivar of alfalfa; 2) evaluate and develop molecular markers and UAV-based precision phenotyping platforms for salt tolerance breeding in alfalfa; 3) develop new soil health and agronomic management knowledge by restoring salt-affected land using the salt tolerant alfalfa. This project will carry out plant screening under salt stress in greenhouse, field plot trials to understand soil health parameters and forage production/quality traits under salt stress, develop high throughput UAV-based phenotyping method, and molecular markers for effective salt tolerant alfalfa breeding.