Farmers in Canada’s largest potato producing province don’t have much in the way of advice to offer Manitoba spud growers on irrigation, and they’d like to keep it that way.
But as Prince Edward Island’s parched potato district suffers through yet another thirsty year, that could change.
“This is the fourth year in a row where irrigation would have easily paid for itself in P.E.I.,” said Brian Sanderson, a potato research scientist at Agriculture Canada’s research centre in Charlottetown.
During a visit to Brandon, where his daughter is competing in the Canada Summer Games, Sanderson rubbed shoulders with southwestern Manitoba spud growers at a potato tour at the Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre in Carberry.
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An average of 80 millimetres of rainfall per month falls on P.E.I. potato crops during July and August. But for the fourth year in a row, most farms got less than 20 mm.
And that hurts, Sanderson said.
Rain affects tubers
“The potato crop needs normal distribution of rainfall in order to grow uniform tubers without internal defects in our climate,” said Sanderson.
“Erratic rainfall results in off-shaped potatoes, knobs, twisted tubers … . These are all major problems when you go to the processor.”
Farmers in the East who shell out money for expensive irrigation systems are taking a much bigger risk than their counterparts in Manitoba where, for the most part, irrigation equipment pays for itself in the long run.
“Irrigation in P.E.I. is needed maybe three years in five, or one year you only need to put on one irrigation,” Sanderson said. “You still have the capital cost but with very little return.”
There’s no provincial government support for irrigation in P.E.I.
However, the string of hot years has both levels of government looking into the economics of it, he said.
“We’re looking at the average benefits of irrigation over five years and it’s close,” said Sanderson.
What is likely to tip the scales?
Large fry buyers, waving long-term contract offers in front of local potato processors, are putting the squeeze on companies to increase the number of suppliers on irrigation.
Only five percent of P.E.I. potato producers irrigate. But processors there are up against competing plants in Washington and Idaho, with close to 95 percent irrigated acres, Sanderson said.
But public and private money won’t start flowing until researchers can prove the venture will pay off.
“I think we could be another three to five years from that.”
Island potato harvest is 108,000 acres this year, down 4,000 from last year.
Bruce Hood, who grows potatoes on his 500-acre farm near Carberry, said Manitoba spud growers don’t have that choice.
“(Irrigation) is almost a requirement of the contract,” said the president of Keystone Vegetable Producers Association.
“For a grower, it is just another added expenditure that takes longer to pay off.”
For example, a farmer in the Carberry area starting out would have to spend close to $90,000 to irrigate a quarter section of land, he said.
A joint federal-provincial program announced in July will inject $6 million into Manitoba’s potato industry by covering one-third of the capital cost of new irrigation systems.
It should add irrigation to another 14,000 acres of Manitoba farmland, boosting the province’s potato production close to 90,000 acres in 1998.
