Some crops destroyed as the result of relentless rain
By Jean-Paul McDonald
The local government in Lac Ste. Anne County, Alta. has officially declared an agricultural disaster.
This year, heavy rains caused some fields to lose up to 80 percent of their planted crops. Some locations received over 400 millimetres of rain since June, with one weather station in nearby Edmonton recording more than 150 millimetres in the last month alone. Environment Canada has referred to this year’s rainfall in the province as “generational.”
“A lot of the land here is low lying, so, when we get excess moisture, farmers have difficulty accessing fields and, even when they can cut, it is hard to get crops dried out,” Stacy Berry, the assistant county agricultural services manager, told The Stony Plain Reporter. “We are seeing the impacts within the county.”
This is the second year in a row that the northwestern Alberta county has declared an ag disaster. In 2018, the region was heavily impacted by smoke from large forest fires in the province and an early snow that decimated most of the crops.
By declaring the disaster, Lac Ste. Anne County brings awareness to the issue. Hopefully, this move will help prompt the province to declare an official emergency and provide funding to support area farmers.
The municipality has likely provided the relevant details to the following organizations which will further assess the situation: the Government of Alberta (Agriculture and Forestry), Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC), and the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.
AFSC’s mandate is to assist municipalities when they experience either drought or excessive wet conditions. More information about AFSC can be found at https://afsc.ca.