Growers will now have more control over oat research according to the president of the Prairie Oat Growers Association.

The federal government announced yesterday that POGA will receive 1.8 million dollars for developing new oat varieties.

"The time has come for producers to be involved in some of these decisions and help direct some of these research programs," says Ile Des Chenes-area farmer and POGA president Bill Wilton. "In the past, we basically were handed the results of the researchers work and that was that."

"The research was funded by industry and government and naturally, the research money all went toward milling oats, because of the fact the millers were paying half the cost. He who pays the piper calls the tune and so there was no work done at all on feed or forage oats," he says.

Wilton explains some of the funding will be used for a genome mapping project which will significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to develop a new variety.

"If you could take a timeline now of about 12 years from inception to production, with this new genome mapping, researchers anticipate they'll be able to cut that time almost in half," he says.

The federal investment comes through the Developing Innovative Agri-Products or DIAP initiative. POGA and industry have committed 770 thousand dollars to research work.

"I think this really shows that when producers are at the table with their own money, that government and industry responds."