OMEX Supports Local Producer for International Benefit

We at OMEX believe in supporting agriculture education and the dedicated people around the world who help deliver it. In this spirit, we are proud to be a partner of the Manyinga Project, supporting Manitoba producer Art Enns in his effort to grow 40 acres of canola, the revenue from which he will donate to the project.

The Manyinga Project operates two schools for orphaned and vulnerable children in the Manyinga region of Zambia, Africa. Along with the state curriculum, the two schools teach the children to grow field crops, fruits, vegetables and to raise goats – all crucial life skills they will need to support themselves, since subsistence farming is the primary way of life in the Manyinga region.

Our company has supported the project for a number of years, but this year is our first opportunity to work with them on a fundraising initiative of this size. We discussed the field project with Enns during a fundraising dinner last spring, and instantly saw that it would be a great opportunity to perform a field-scale trail of our High Performance Plant Nutrition products while supporting a great cause.

Twenty of Enns’s 40 canola acres were treated with Primer Canola, a seed dressing with high concentrations of phosphorus, potassium and zinc as well as other essential micronutrients. The remaining 20 acres will be our check.

Primer Canola improves early-season establishment of canola in cold and wet soil conditions and the crop cabbages out and bolts quicker, resulting in an earlier flowering to beat the summer heat. When I visited the field, I saw that the section that had received Primer Canola had even staging, while I observed multi-stage on the check half. The treated half was also pulling ahead in terms of the number of leaves and the girth of the stems.

Part of the reason for my visit was to deliver the next part of our contribution – C3 foliar fertilizer for Enns to apply with his Clearfield herbicide application. Tank-mixing a foliar nutrition product with herbicide reduces stress and stunting that can occur after the herbicide application.

Overall, I saw that the field has nice emergence and good stand, though I am surprised to say this after the almost never-ending rain Enns’s corner of the country has received during the past few years – it could have used a little moisture.

Enns mentioned how impressed he was by the difference between the treated and the check; that’s the difference OMEX High Performance Plant Nutrition makes. Like the children this project supports, getting a crop off to a strong start is crucial to its long-term health and welfare.

I am excited to keep an eye on the field as it progresses through the growing season and am looking forward to the harvest. If you would like to know more about the Manyinga Project, I encourage you to visit the project website at manyinga.org.