SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Saskatchewan irrigators presented Clay Serby with an incomplete water sprinkler to symbolize the work that remains to be done in irrigation development in the province.
Roger Pederson, chair of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association, gave the deputy premier the gift and the message during SIPA’s annual two-day conference here last week.
SIPA has a plan aimed at developing more irrigation, setting up meetings with all levels of government, increasing public awareness of the need for more water development and enlarging its membership base.
Read Also
U.S. farm group supports supply management
U.S. grassroots farm advocacy group pushing new agriculture legislation that would move towards supply management like Canada has for dairy industry
It wants to more closely mirror the work of its counterparts in the Alberta Irrigation Projects Association.
Pederson said SIPA can help create and implement irrigation programs and strategies.
Central to that are recent changes to the Irrigation Act, which gives SIPA more autonomy and less dependence on government funding.
“It’s better to be separate and apart so we’re not viewed as any part of government,” said Pederson. “It allows us freedom to do more.”
In his address to SIPA, Serby said these changes empower districts to chart their own course and approach lenders on their own.
“Expansion of irrigation acreage is possible if districts have alternate ways to find investment,” he said.
Serby acknowledged the importance of irrigation in the province’s rural development and encouraged SIPA to take this agenda and Agrivision’s 50-year water strategy forward.
“By expanding irrigation, we can grow the rural economy and make it more attractive to those coming in.”
Serby said a comprehensive package of improved primary roads, communications systems and access to power are also required.
“You can’t just build one piece of the infrastructure.”
Water is essential to create value-added products and processing, the most untapped areas of Saskatchewan agriculture, he said.
“We can produce with anyone in the world but what we haven’t done yet is add value to what we produce.”
He assured members the work of the Action Committee on the Rural Economy, which recommends more irrigation, will not sit on a shelf.
The 50-year water plan also calls for extensive irrigation development and the creation of water storage reservoirs and water development corporations.
