For the second time this year, the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association has announced it will lay off its field staff.
One agrologist in each of these locations will lose their jobs Sept. 30: Yorkton, North Battleford, Tisdale and Swift Current. The Saskatoon office was already vacant and the position will not be filled.
SSCA executive director Blair McClinton said a six-month contract with the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration staved off the layoffs announced in February.
“We were hoping something would have developed federally over that time,” he said last week.
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The association had relied mainly on funding from the national greenhouse gas mitigation program, but that ended after the federal election in January.
“Most of our funding sources have dried up on us,” McClinton said.
Since the government is at about the mid-point of its budget cycle, it’s unlikely it would come through with more.
Private companies used to provide significant dollars, McClinton said, but they no longer see value in trying to increase use of a particular herbicide, considering farmers can opt for cheaper generics.
The provincial agriculture department provided money through a three-year agreement that ended in March.
McClinton questioned why the provincial department couldn’t offer funding because it identifies climate change and carbon sequestration as priorities in its work plan.
“This is going to be the future reality in farming,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re doing to achieve these goals.”
Agriculture minister Mark Wartman said his department is keeping up to date on developments in these areas and to some extent was working parallel to the SSCA.
He said the association knew three years ago it would no longer have funding from the province.
“We could not find, in terms of our priorities, any rationale for any extension (of SSCA funding),” he said. “That in no way says they weren’t doing good work.”
McClinton said the association has talked to the Saskatchewan environment department but it says these issues are agriculture’s responsibility.
He said SSCA field staff spent a lot of time over the last year answering farmers’ questions about the Chicago Climate Exchange and other agronomic issues.
“The association is still going to deliver on its mandate in some form, even though it’s going to be very short staffed,” McClinton said.
It will offer its crop advisers’ workshop later this year and its annual conference in February.
