Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
The M.D. of Smoky River No. 130 has officially declared the M.D. an Agricultural Disaster area.
Council and administration recognize the extreme drought conditions that have plagued the Smoky River region this year, noting there has been a substantial decline in production yields as a result.
“The main reason this is done is to ensure there is awareness about our conditions,” says Reeve Robert Brochu.
“It’s important that the government know that even though the crops may look good (from the highway) there is not much out there,” he adds.
Brochu says at this juncture it’s hard to give an exact estimate of the decline in production, but he says the canola is only about 20 to 50 per cent of its normal yield, with cereals in dire straits and roughly 30 per cent less than normal.
Hay lands are in the absolute worse shape of all the crops.
“The primary impact is to ranchers who have seen losses up to 80 per cent of their hay crops and severe deterioration of pasture lands,” Brochu explains.
“Drought and grasshopper numbers nearing or at economic thresholds have added challenges for our producers.”
Brochu says if the region gets some rain, the crops may improve somewhat, but the hay and pasture lands will not recover this growing season. He stresses agricultural producers should look at some of the programs available through the government to help protect their investments if the drought continues into the next year.
“It’s important for producers to join the available programs,” Brochu says.
“Two notables are the Moisture Deficiency Insurance and Agri-Stability.”
Moisture Deficiency Insurance is available through Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) and is an area-based program that compensates clients when accumulated precipitation at selected weather stations fall below normal in a given year.
Agristability is also available through AFSC and its purpose is to help producers protect and manage their farming operations from large income declines caused by production loss, increased costs, or market conditions.
A host of other producer-insurances are also available through the corporation and can be found on their website afsc.ca.
Brochu adds that by declaring an agricultural disaster, producers would hopefully be included in an affected area drought impact map that would allow them to apply for any emergency funding created as a result of production loss.
“Adding to the challenge, most of our ratepayers are still on dugout water and without rain recharging dugouts we fear that the situation will only get worse heading into winter months,” says Brochu.
“Water storage and transfer are still large issues in the M.D. of Smoky River.”