Following three consecutive years of overland flooding, the federal and Manitoba governments are taking a step to improve drainage in Manitoba’s northern Interlake.
The two levels of government will provide $860,000 to develop a water management plan for agricultural lands in the Rural Municipality of Bifrost, which is contributing, in-kind, $24,000 toward the study.
“Minister Gerry Ritz and I have been working on this one for awhile, to get some money together for a feasibility study to tackle the ongoing drainage problems that are plaguing farmers in that area,” said Stan Struthers, Manitoba agriculture minister, at Ag Days in Brandon Jan. 18.
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Since 2008, excessive moisture and flooding have hammered producers in the northern Interlake, particularly in 2009, when about 200,000 acres of cropland could not be seeded.
“This support will allow Manitoba producers to improve on-farm water management, thereby lowering their costs and increasing their productivity,” said James Bezan, Selkirk-Interlake MP.
Struthers hopes the feasibility study will be completed as soon as possible, leading to the next step in the process –improving the drainage system.
“Depending on what the feasibility study tells us, it may mean that we have to go into other municipalities when it comes to actually doing some digging.”
