The Rafferty and Alameda dams could support 12,000 irrigated acres of farmland, but no one has yet asked to use the water.
Wayne Dybvig, vice-president of operations with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, said that’s likely a symptom of general agricultural woes of low crop prices, high input costs and poor returns across the Prairies.
“It’s not a good time to be undertaking high capital-intensive agricultural projects,” he said.
Dybvig said there was an initial moratorium on irrigation projects in the mid-1990s until the reservoirs filled and a water management plan was in place.
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They have been full for the last five years in an area that has experienced years so wet that many crops were flooded out.
He said the area’s Class 1 and 2 soils and good heat units mean farmers could grow potatoes, alfalfa and cereals under irrigation.
“The scope of whatever else is being grown in Saskatchewan under irrigation has potential to be grown there,” he said.
Great potential
Roger Pederson, chair of the Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association, is surprised by the area’s lack of interest.
“It’s a supply of water you could count on now and that would lend itself to irrigation,” he said.
“The farm economy is bad and we need to get into things that will support us better than the traditional crops we’ve been trying to grow.”
He hoped new funding opportunities through the Canada-Saskatchewan Water Supply Expansion Program could help his group develop and promote new irrigation districts and projects.
SIPA’s plans include working with current and potential irrigation districts to identify opportunities for expansion, infill and improvement.
He noted irrigation specialists at the Outlook crop diversification centre can also offer help to those considering irrigation. Another resource is SIPA, which offers a step-by-step pamphlet for those entering into irrigation projects.
“We’ve got people who’ve gone through it,” Pederson said.
Citing Saskatchewan Agrivision’s 50-year-water strategy, he said the time is ripe.
“The climate for irrigation development has never been better for 25 years in the province. A lot of things seem to be working just right now.”
