THE friendly district extension agrologist is going the same way as the wooden elevator and the general store.
Alberta centralized its agronomy services several years ago.
Manitoba’s agricultural services are now under review.
At the end of this month, 22 Saskatchewan rural service centres will close and operations will be centralized in the nine remaining offices, resulting in the layoff of 119 extension staff.
Then, if you have a question about agronomy, farm management or provincial agricultural programs, you call a toll-free phone number or send an e-mail. You’ll get an answer, often an adequate one, but the person on the other end of line is unlikely to know you or your family.
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They won’t have intimate knowledge of your farm and local environment, as did many local agrologists.
In addition to answering questions about crops, livestock and farm management, extension agrologists helped organize meetings and field days. They got local research and demonstration projects going. They were advocates for their districts, attracting their department’s interest in local problems.
But now, because of changing technology and fiscal needs, these people and their positions are disappearing.
The Saskatchewan government says the reorganization will save about $2 million, money needed to help pay for the extra $46.8 million that is its share of the new farm safety net.
The government said 70 percent of contacts with extension personnel was by phone, fax or e-mail, and these can be handled efficiently by a call centre.
Basic agronomic advice is available at no cost by farm input suppliers. Company agrologists are well trained and informed, but often they are perceived as providing advice tailored to the products they sell.
Independent advice is also available. For example, in Alberta, many laid-off extension specialists joined the ranks of professional independent agrologists. But this advice comes with a bill.
Organizing regional meetings and demonstration plots will fall to volunteers and commodity associations. But volunteers are already overworked.
While cutting these services might seem a prudent step now, governments might come to regret the decision.
We tend to smirk with skepticism when we hear the words “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
But in the case of local extension agrologists, they were a helping hand They were a grassroots, local outpost of government. Not faceless bureaucrats, but helpful neighbours.
With the reputation of government struggling and so many rural residents unable to see much benefit from paying their taxes, cutting rural extension staff is the wrong thing to do.
