JANUARY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


11


Weather patterns forcing change for FV farmers Symposium underlines urgency


by DAVID SCHMIDT


ABBOTSFORD – Water is essential for crops. Too little and the crop won’t grow. Too much is not a solution either. Too much water in the spring and a farmer can’t get on the field to plant the crop. Too much in the fall and it will wash out the crop.


Both are potential future scenarios for the Fraser Valley, water management


consultant Christina Metherall told the Fraser Valley Agricultural Water


Management Symposium in Abbotsford on November 17. “The weather we’re used to will be different and what we do will have to change,” Metherall said.


The symposium was a follow-up to the BC Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative’s


consultations with Abbotsford and Chilliwack farmers in 2015. Although total precipitation is projected to rise 7% over the next 30 years, that's not necessarily good news. When and how it arrives will change significantly. The summer rain crops need could drop by as much as 12% by 2050 while winter precipitation could increase 6% – and fall as rain, not snow. This means the moisture won't be stored for gradual release in spring and summer as snow melts. Winter rains are also likely to be heavier. The result is both a greater risk of winter flooding and summer water shortages. “Keeping the water is something we will need,” one farmer commented. Partnership for Water Conservation president Ted van der Gulik, the former BC Ministry of Agriculture water management engineer, says the projected increased growing days in the spring, summer and fall could be a


boon for farmers but only if they have water.


City of Abbotsford acting director of operational services Pardeep Agnihotri says farmers have been able to get the water they’ve needed in the past, noting the city was able to supply enough water during the 2015 drought, but that could change.


“We have a great system for now but it won’t work in future,” Agnihotri admitted. That is already evident in Chilliwack, which has had agricultural water restrictions in place for over a decade. The demand for agricultural water will only increase, van der Gulik says. He notes only about 28,000 hectares in the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley regional districts are currently irrigated, saying “we need to irrigate another 100,000 hectares to produce the food we need and that will require three times as much water.”


Meeting demand


To meet the demand, Chilliwack environmental services manager Tara Friesen says farmers need to be more judicious in their water usage. “Agriculture can use 40% less water through implementation of


conservation measures,” she claimed.


Van Belle Nursery of


Abbotsford has started doing just that. Van Belle has put a lot of time, money and effort into capturing and recycling water for its 100-acres of containerized plant production. Van Belle horticulturist Valerie Sikkema says the effort began over a decade ago as the nursery looked for ways to ensure both the quality and quantity of water available to them at their four growing sites. Van Belle’s most


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sophisticated system is at its Page Creek location. It includes three massive rainwater collection and storage tanks which can be augmented by sand-filtered water from the creek. After the water is balanced for pH and run through a copper ionization system, it is used to irrigate Van Belle’s 15-acre greenhouse. Excess water is collected and recycled through the sand filter and back into the storage tank. Sikkema notes Van Belle is able to recycle the water since it does not use bulk fertigation.


Environmental health biologist Derek Hunt of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Agassiz Research and Development Centre is looking at both the best ways for farmers to irrigate and ways farmers can reduce their dependence on water. He says a 2015 study on three farm co-operators showed irrigation increased initial orchard grass yields by 94%. Different irrigation regimes did not change plant response but did impact nitrate leaching and overall water usage. He believes the best use of water is through


infrequent irrigation at “heavy” application rates. He says farmers can also reduce water usage by reducing the number of times they cut their forage. “We produced a higher yield with three-cut forage than five-cut forage.”


Hunt also encourages cover crops in corn, saying they reduce flash flooding and leaching, don’t decrease corn yields and provide another feed crop. Early planting and late harvest provides the best corn yield while late planting and early harvest produces the best cover crop yield.


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