Government invests in northern agriculture

by SUSAN MANN

More Northeastern Ontario farmers will soon be able to get their crops into the ground earlier in the spring than they usually do thanks to Ontario government funding that will help pay for tile drainage installations.

About 50 Northeastern Ontario farmers are benefiting from $2.7 million in funding to assist them in paying for land clearing and tile drainage costs. The funding was announced Aug. 11 by Ontario Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC).

Established in June 1988, the NOHFC is a Crown Corporation and development agency of the Ontario government that invests in northern businesses and municipalities.

Four separate projects received funding. They include:

The Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance received $1 million for a consortium of 14 area farmers to install tile drainage on 1,892 acres.

The Alliance also received $998,670 for a consortium of 16 area farmers to clear land and do tile drainage installations on about 1,892 acres of land.

The Association of Community Pastures received $35,175 to add fencing and enhance the water system for the community pasture in Temiskaming Shores.

The West Nipissing East Sudbury Agricultural Support Projects Inc. is getting $658,200 to administer a tile drainage installation and land-clearing project for 19 area farmers on 1,097 acres.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Don McCabe says the funding “is a good deal. Farmers in the area and other receivers of the funds made their applications, the government reviewed them and evidently saw value in investing in that area.”

City of Temiskaming Shores Mayor Carman Kidd says tile drained land will give farmers “the opportunity to get their crops in another two to three weeks earlier in the spring and it will keep some land dry enough in the fall so they can get their crops off two or three weeks later in the fall.”

The area has fairly heavy clay soils and the “moisture doesn’t proceed down through the clay very quickly down to the aquifers,” notes Kidd, a retired dairy farmer. Tile drainage will help drain the water away from the land and prevent crops from being drowned.

The government has funded previous tile drainage projects in the area. Crops in the Temiskaming district are now being planted during the last week of April and the first two weeks of May whereas previously they didn’t go in until the end of May or the beginning of June, he says. Without tile drainage farmers wouldn’t be able to get the higher value cash crops, such as corn and soybeans, in the ground early enough in the spring for them to fully mature “and they would be hard to get off with the wet weather in the fall.”

Kidd says the government funding covers up to 50 per cent of the farmers’ costs of clearing land and installing tile drainage. “Without that it gets very cost prohibitive to actually go ahead and do it on your own.”

Northern Development and Mines ministry spokesperson Julia Bennett says by email “we’re supporting economic growth in the north by nurturing new and emerging sectors with high growth potential.”

The money provided to the farmers is in the form of grants, she says.

Through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation’s strategic economic infrastructure program, “we are helping farmers in Northern Ontario grow their operations, maximize their potential and remain competitive,” she adds.

Kidd says Northeastern Ontario farmers mainly grow wheat, oats and barley. “With the introduction of tile drainage, we just started growing corn, soybeans and canola.”

The area’s heat units have increased during the past 10 years too making it possible for Northeastern Ontario farmers to grow similar crops to what farmers are growing in other parts of the province, he notes, adding they’re in a zone with 2200 to 2500 heat units.

The Temiskaming district has about 200,000 acres of land that’s used for farming. The area is changing to cash crops from traditionally being a beef and dairy farming region. The installation of tile drainage and a warmer climate are driving the shift.

Farming in the area generates $70 million to $75 million a year. The agricultural industry is a stabilizing factor for the economy of the city and district. When the forestry and mining sectors go up and down year after year, “we can always count on agriculture,” Kidd says.

The funding announced Aug. 11 is part of the Ontario government’s infrastructure investment across Ontario of more than $130 billion over 10 years to support projects, such as roads, bridges, transit systems, schools and hospitals, according to a north development and mines ministry press release. BF