OUTLOOK, Sask. – The pencil straight rows of leafy green cabbages look like a picture postcard of the vegetable farms in California, but they are actually 2,000 kilometres away.
The vegetables at Outlook, Sask., are part of a research project here at the Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre examining the effectiveness of three post-harvest storage techniques on various varieties of cabbage.
Oliver Green, past-president of the Saskatchewan Vegetable Growers Association, said cabbage is just one of many vegetables Saskatchewan producers on irrigation can grow well for local, Canadian and export markets.
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“We in Saskatchewan can produce a crop every bit as good as California,” he said, noting that this year’s vegetable crop looks well and is maturing normally.
There has been a surge of interest in growing vegetables coupled with strong consumer demand for Saskatchewan-grown produce, Green said at the centre’s annual field day and trade show. However those wanting to get in on vegetables need better access to information, training and resources.
“Most learn on their own,” said Green.
He said government could play a greater role in promoting the potential and in supporting a skilled immigrant labour force.
Green said the province’s growers are also limited by a lack of adequate storage facilities for fruit and vegetables, noting the use of controlled atmosphere storage in provinces such as Quebec.
“We should be doing that here.”
He suggested teaming with Manitoba to market prairie produce.
“If we label it Saskatchewan-grown, sales will double,” said Green.
But first, Saskatchewan needs to increase its production.
“We’re not supplying it,” said Green. “Marketing is not the problem; production is the problem.”
Production is up, but Green said it’s difficult to say by how much. The data is unreliable and needs to distinguish between farmers’ markets and commercial scale market garden farms like his at Broderick.
Producers should look at growing cabbage, celery, carrots, cantaloupe and brussels sprouts.
He noted net return from cantaloupe production is $3,000 per acre, up to $9,000 an acre for green peppers and double that for red peppers. Green also cited the late-season potential for selling frost-damaged peppers in a diced form to frozen pizza makers.
Fruit production remains limited in Saskatchewan, with 230 growers, said Hamish Tulloch of the University of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon berries account for two-thirds of the fruit produced, followed by strawberries.
“We have a lot of room to grow in fruit production and the potential is definitely there,” he said, citing chokecherries as an example.
Tulloch said growers could maximize yields per acre by concentrating on the agronomic basics of fruit growing such as pruning, fertilizing and irrigating.
Like Green, Tulloch agreed that more facilities are needed to store harvested fruit in Saskatchewan.
