New Crops for Canadian Agriculture

Abstract

The designation “new crop ” may be applied to virtually any useful plant that in some respect is new. The following categories of newness (which are not all mutually exclusive) are economically important in discussing new crops: (1) gathering new wild crops from nature; (2) cultivating an undomesticated plant not previously grown; (3) domesticating (changing genetically) an undomesticated plant; (4) breeding improved cultivars of domesticated plants; (5) growing crops in new areas; (6) growing crops for new uses; (7) growing crops with new management techniques; (8) selling crops in new markets.