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The Government of Saskatchewan and SaskCanola combined to release a map on Monday, outlining rural municipalities (RM) where clubroot has been identified.
The 2021 Saskatchewan Clubroot Distribution Map, which involved surveying over 750 fields in over 200 RMs in 2021, does not publicly share specific locations to protect the privacy of producers. Landowners with either visible clubroot symptoms or confirmed soil samples have been contacted by the province.
“The Ministry of Agriculture is dedicated to early detection, tracking and managing clubroot,” Agriculture Minister David Marit said in a government news release.
“This protects our producers, landowners and our strong canola market.”
Clubroot is a soil-borne disease and a declared pest under Saskatchewan’s Pest Control Act. In canola, clubroot causes swelling which can lead to the premature death of the plant. There are currently no ways to remove clubroot once a field has been infected, only to mitigate its spread.
Visible symptoms have been confirmed in 80 commercial canola fields since 2017.
Five more fields have been added since the 2020 clubroot update. The number of fields where clubroot pathogen DNA has been found in soil samples increased by nine in 2021, for a total of 38 fields in the province. These results are compiled annually through ministry surveys and reports or samples submitted by producers and agrologists.
Last year, 100 soil samples were submitted via a voluntary soil testing program. Of those samples, there was one positive result.
SaskCanola covered the costs of the soil tests. The other eight positive soil samples in 2021 were collected through the provincial clubroot risk-based and general canola diseases surveys.
“Ongoing clubroot surveying in Saskatchewan is critical for early detection and diligent management,” SaskCanola board of directors chair Bernie McClean said in the news release. “We continue to invest levy dollars into the provincial clubroot survey program to help farmers manage this disease with evidence and data.”