Program promotes innovative on-farm water use

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

Bruce Kelly has about $850,000 burning a hole in his pocket and he’s anxious to share the money with agriculture groups interested in conserving water or using water more efficiently.

Kelly is the environmental program coordinator for Guelph-based Farm and Food Care Ontario. The program, a joint investment from the federal and Ontario governments called Water Resource Adaptation and Management Initiative (WRAMI), is “to help producers adopt innovative and sustainable on-farm water management practices.”

What Kelly hopes to do is fund projects, up to $70,000 each, that do more than provide answers for one farmer’s problems. “This is very much a tech-transfer piece,” Kelly says, “so we’d like to fund projects that are of interest to a sector.”

Examples already in play are potato growers who want to explore variable rate irrigation. Apple growers, he says, want to study a couple of things including drip irrigation. He also expects dairy to come forward with projects such as how to reuse wash water.

Individual farmers are not eligible to apply, although most of the projects will be done on farms. “The actual applicant will be a community group or soil and crop local association,” he says, adding, “We didn’t want to compete with other programs that are out there and we wanted to get good buy-in from commodity groups.”

Individual farmers who have water projects already in play or completed are encouraged to come forward so the projects can be documented and publicized so that others will learn and benefit from their experience.

As examples of projects that might merit an article, Kelly mentioned farmers who are integrating organic matter and using tillage practices that prepare the farm for drought and greenhouse growers working on water security.

Kelly says they might also turn some existing projects into case studies by using water or flow meters to test assumptions.

Kelly says they have earmarked about $100,000 of the $850,000 to report on existing projects and document projects by hiring professional writers and videographers and then posting the stories on the Food and Farm Care Ontario website and also pitching stories and photos to trade magazines.

“It’s hard to talk about drought when there’s snow on the ground,” Kelly says but he adds that he is already developing articles on some projects that are in place. “I want to have articles in the spring and summer issues of trade papers and magazines,” he says.

The deadline for applications is Feb. 15, 2013 with project selection by Feb. 28. Demonstration projects must be completed within a year. BF