Ottawa Research and Development Centre

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

960 Carling Avenue, Central Experimental Farm
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0C6

Telephone: 613-759-1858

Email: aafc.ottawardc-crdottawa.aac@canada.ca

Latitude: 45.392464
Longitude: −75.717096

The Ottawa Research and Development Centre was established in 1886. It is located in Ottawa, Ontario at the Central Experimental Farm. It is one of the original five experimental farms established by the Government of Canada in 1886 under the Experimental Farm Station Act to conduct research in support of Canadian agriculture.

The Centre leads Manitoba to Prince Edward Island in crop development, targeting corn, soy, spring wheat, winter wheat, oats and barley. It also supports research conducted at other research centres in the areas of food safety, mycotoxins, and biocontrol.

The Centre's main research focus lies in three areas:

• Crop genetic enhancement and genomics
• Biodiversity of vascular plant, fungi and bacteria, and invertebrates
• Integrated assessment of long-term environmental effect of agricultural practices

Facilities at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre

• 425 hectares of experimental fields and plots on the historic Central Experimental Farm in downtown Ottawa; 27,000 square metres of laboratory space; and 2,300 square metres of greenhouses (integrated growth facility)
• World-class national biological collections. These working collections include:
  • Canadian Collection of Fungal Cultures (DAOMC) containing 20,000 living fungal cultures encompassing over 4,000 species
  • Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids, and Nematodes (CNC) containing 17 million specimens
  • Canadian National Mycological Herbarium (DAOM) containing 350 thousand specimens
  • Glomeromycota in vitro Collection (GINCO) with 94 specimens with 14 available for distribution
  • National Collection of Vascular Plants (DAO) with 1.6 million specimens
• More than 25 superior cultivars of wheat, oats, barley and soybeans developed in the past 5 years
• National mycotoxin analysis laboratory serving Departmental cereal breeders and Fusarium resistance research projects
• Electronics laboratory and machine shop
• National Arthropod Containment Facility providing a single entry point for exotic insects with beneficial biocontrol potential
• National Identification Services for insects, fungi, nematodes and plants
• National Soil Databases containing soil, climate, land use, crop yield and socioeconomic information for the agri-food sector and other Canadian industries.
• National bioinformatics network with capacity for functional and structural genomics including a 32 Central Processing Unit high performance computing cluster
• Central genomics facility performing global gene expression profiling for a variety of organisms (plant, fungal, animal) using an extensive DNA sequence database, a DNA microarray printer and scanner, and robotic equipment
• Electronic microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance center for use by Agriculture and Agri-Food scientists

Current research activities

Enhancing environmental performance

• Establishing environmentally sustainable ways to develop and use land for field crop production in eastern Ontario and western Quebec
• Formulating methods and models to evaluate the impact of agriculture on levels of carbon in the soil, as well as greenhouse gas emissions
• Evaluating and modeling the dynamics of agriculture-based contaminants in soil and water, and studying best management practices to reduce movements of contaminants into the environment
• Creating resource databases for land use and environmental assessments

Innovation and advancing knowledge

• Identifying and characterizing Canada's flora and fauna to define economically important fungi, insects, crops and weeds
• Studying ways to detect, measure and monitor biodiversity change, and biodiversity assessments to support conservation and sustainable use of Canadian biological resources
• Using systems such as molecular diagnostics to identify economically important fungi
• Using molecular techniques to determine the genetic diversity of crops and weeds
• Developing knowledge on the classifications and relationships of important insect groups

New knowledge for future applications

• Diagnosing and identifying tools to facilitate border protection against the introduction of pests and invasive species
• Developing novel pest management strategies that exploit natural enemies and that can be integrated with current agricultural practices

Better products for stronger markets

• Improving the genetic makeup of corn and corn populations that have been bred for desirable traits for the short-season areas of Canada
• Developing new varieties of soybeans for short-season areas of eastern Canada and Manitoba
• Developing winter and spring wheats, oats and barley for Eastern Canada. Traits of importance are resistance to disease and insects, improved quality, early maturity and tolerance for cold and drought
• Developing methods to control Fusarium (a fungus disease of corn, wheat, barley and oats, as well as causing white mould in soybeans)

Investing in healthier crops

• Determining the best methods to produce crops by less frequent tilling of the soil, and making better use of organic nitrogen sources. Characterizing nitrogen and fertilizer needs and their use by crops; the interactions between crop yield and environment; optimal crop rotations, as well as methods of cultivating crops to reduce soil erosion
• Studying the interaction between plants and the bacteria or fungi that infect them, the effects of agricultural practices on crop diseases, and cereal seed fungi and treatments

Delivering value through science

• Isolating, characterizing and manipulating useful plant genes and the elements that control or regulate them to allow research to add product value, reduce environmental impacts on crops and increase resistance to insects and disease
• Identifying the molecular markers associated with important crop traits to facilitate the genetic enhancement of crops
• Evaluating and documenting the genetic profiles for corn, small grain cereals, canola and the fungi Fusarium and Trichoderma
• Evaluating the resistance of new cereals to the Fusarium fungus
• Developing inventive technologies to isolate new compounds from plants and other organisms
• Identifying those seed components that have high value, and methods for isolating, purifying and characterizing them

Results of our research

Cereal and pulses; oilseeds

• Developed more than 25 superior cultivars of wheat, oats, barley, soybeans, and corn in the past 5 years, providing new standards of production for farmers and enhanced quality for consumers. Ottawa Research and Development Centre research is expanding the frontiers of farming in Canada through the development of crops that are able to withstand cooler temperatures and produce greater economic yields. These new varieties also have appropriate disease and abiotic stress resistance and marketable seed quality

Agro-ecosystem productivity and health

• Calculated greenhouse gas (GHG) emission estimates to support exports of canola to Europe for biofuels in 2013; compared net GHG emissions associated with canola production in the Prairies for 1986 and 2006. The methodology that was developed has helped to support the claim that Canadian canola exceeds the GHG saving required by the European Union Renewable Energy Directive
• Developed and used an integrated on-farm / off-farm model to estimate the carbon footprint of eleven Canadian dairy products
• Supported risk management by providing information on the extent and severity of soil moisture extremes, through being a world-leader in using Canada’s RADARSAT-2 satellite
• World-leader in using Canada’s RADARSAT-2 satellite to provide information on the extent and severity of soil moisture extremes, supporting risk management
• Led an inter-departmental team to develop and test new methods of creating high-resolution, high-accuracy land use maps. The 1990, 2000 and 2010 maps provide the most accurate and spatially explicit land use information available for Canada, and are being used to meet international reporting requirements, assess production potentials and improve agri-environmental sustainability

Biodiversity and bioresources

• Provided thousands of authoritative identifications of quarantine and invasive plant species and weeds, invasive insect/mite/nematode pests, and fungal and bacterial diseases every year to support the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in preventing the spread or entry of pests into Canada and reduce economic losses
• National mycotoxin testing facility: identifies, purifies, and detects mycotoxin levels in food and animal feeds. This helps scientists monitor and study a devastating plant disease caused by a fungus (Fusarium graminearum), understand plant-pathogen interactions, and guide breeding research for the development of resistant cereal and oilseed cultivars. Over 20,000 samples are processed each year, guiding scientists in early germplasm development across the country