Some of the largest landowners in the province of Saskatchewan want to become better farmers.
First Nations bands own an estimated 1.75 million acres of agricultural land in the province but they farm only 20 percent of it, leasing the remainder to non-native producers.
In 10 years, First Nations will own more than three million acres, or about five percent of the arable land in Saskatchewan, and the bands want a much higher portion of that being farmed by their own people.
“There is a real need and want by First Nations communities to do that,” said Keith LePoudre, general manager of the newly formed First Nations Agricultural Council of Saskatchewan Inc.
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The council has established a 25 year vision to have 80 percent of that growing stockpile of arable land farmed by First Nation’s people.
It wants to see 1,500 Indian farmers in the province by 2031, up from 350 today. And it wants reserves to be teeming with integrated food operations, such as cattle finishing facilities and meat processing plants that sell First Nations branded products to European customers.
This isn’t the first time such an ambitious plan has been hatched. A little more than four years ago, the First Nations Agricultural Program of Saskatchewan was launched with the goal of expanding the number of First Nations farmers in the province and creating a $100 million annual industry.
At that time, aboriginals were farming 20 percent of the 1.6 million acres owned by bands in the province, so little has changed in that respect.
But LePoudre said gradual progress has been made over the past four years.
The council has been established, the vision for First Nations agriculture has been honed and a deal has been worked out with federal and provincial governments to customize an agricultural policy framework program that meets the needs of First Nations people.
Lester Lafond, president of FNACS, is especially pleased by the uptake from First Nations youth. There are now 60 young Indians running 700 head of cattle in the province.
“It’s building, it’s slowly building,” he said.
But many stumbling blocks remain, including ill-suited government programs.
“We’ve had basically zero success with the CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization) program,” said Lafond. “It has just been a total failure to First Nations.”
Another constraint is the lack of equity on reserves to fund agricultural endeavors. This, combined with the poor quality of land on most reserves, is driving First Nations farmers toward livestock instead of the more expensive grain farming sector.
“If we want to get ourselves back into agriculture, we have to be in the cow-calf industry or buffalo. That’s the only way,” said Lafond.
Mervyn Arcand, a grain and oilseed farmer on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation reserve, agreed that livestock is the way to go.
“You don’t need as much capital to get into cattle and most of the reserves have pastures that they can use.”
Arcand said “buying iron” for a grain operation is too expensive and grain prices are too abysmal for young farmers to get into that end of the business.
“A lot of our land is not the best land and it should be used for cattle,” he said.
One of the biggest challenges facing the council is how to get young Indians properly trained for a career in agriculture.
Low on list
Ernie Barber, dean of agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, said First Nations students tend to become lawyers and teachers, not farmers.
He estimates a maximum of two percent of the college’s undergraduates are aboriginal, which is why the university has signed an agreement with the council to see what type of program could be developed to appeal to First Nations students.
“I have a good feeling it is not our current degree in agriculture,” said Barber.
