The Crops of the Parkland display has been a major tourist attraction in the City of Yorkton, with people making the trip out to see the site since that project began. Building on that success, plans are in the works to develop a new Western Canadian Crop Technology Interpretive Centre. A fund raising effort was recently kicked off.
Thom Weir, committee chair, says the plan is to build a facility of about 6,500 square feet, which would include a number of different exhibits that tell the story of modern crop production. Weir says the stations would take visitors from the soil to the crop's eventual destination as a processed good, whether it's food or fuel. It would also cover things such as environmental sustainability and new technologies, as well as the role of agribusiness.
"Technology and sustainability would be the major threads that pull the whole thing together," Weir says.
The budget for the project is $2.5 million with operating expenses of approximately $100,000 annually.
"We're hopefully going out to agribusiness, and we feel that it is a big enough and a good enough story that hopefully agribusiness will fund the whole thing," Weir says.
While there are other agricultural interpretive centres out there, Weir says this facility will be unique in its focus on crop production.
The development of the upcoming interpretive centre is a natural growth from the Crops of the Parkland, explains Weir, as it allows for more information and also allows that information to presented year round, two things he says the public was asking for.
"The interest kept growing and people kept asking for more information. A couple of years ago several of us who were involved with Crops of the Parkland sat down and just asked what we could do more. We kept getting feedback from schools that timing was never good for Crops of the Parkland, and they were wanting something, and the public was wanting more information, so we thought we would take it one step further," he adds.
The strength of the Crops of the Parkland is one of the reasons why the committee is confident in the new project, and it will continue.
"We've had comments from people in Regina that they specifically took a day trip out here with people from England to show them the Crops of the Parkland... It's been very well received and it's been well used, and it will continue in conjunction with this new project," Weir states.
The new interpretive centre is expected to take two and a half years to come to fruition. Weir expects the funding to be in place after a year, and the construction to take a year and a half after that.
"Our target is somewhere in 2014 to have something opened."
Those interested in learning more or in contributing to the project can visit www.westerncropcentre.ca.
