Saskatchewan salinity lab leads search for better crop varieties on saline soil

“I get paid to kill plants,” said Shanna Quilichini with a smile and a chuckle.

The lead biologist at the Agriculture and Agri-food Canada’s Salinity Laboratory in Swift Current, the facility she works at is the only dedicated hydroponic research facility focused on salinity in the nation.

WHY IT MATTERS: Soil salinity can be a tricky problem for farmers to wrangle and requires a serious look at water management and crop choice for those fields.

Quilichini’s work featured at Ag in Motion 2026. She’s growing various agricultural crops and seeing exactly how much stress/salt tolerance they can take.

“We look at everything from forages, cereals, oil seeds. We look at the roots. We look at the above ground. We look at seed production,” said Quilichini.

The research follows plants through germinating seed, seedling and mature plant stages.

“It shows how much the yield is reduced by a certain amount of salt,” she said, adding that her research takes out other growing variables and boils the impact down to direct correlation between salt exposure and plant impact.

“It’s really hard to do it in the field because you have the interaction of the soil, so it’s harder to isolate it,” she said.

Developing varieties for salinity

The facility has been operational since 1989 and its research has helped develop varieties like CDC Salt King, a high-performing hybrid wheat grass, known for its salinity tolerance and winter hardiness. The laboratory just finished screening soybeans for salt tolerance from 51 different countries, in which Quilichini noted a half-dozen look promising for Canada. They also have a salt-tolerant alfalfa in the works.

Breeding for salt tolerance can yield varieties of particular use for low-lying areas in farmer’s fields where salinity is more likely to rear its head.

“All crops have that sort of diversity within it, and then we’re looking for those unicorns. We’re looking for the needle in the haystack for those genetics that we’re trying to isolate,” said Quilichini.

See the rest of our news, technology and video coverage from Ag in Motion 2026.