As temperatures rise, industry leaders say B.C. farmers are bracing for the challenges of what could be a hot summer.
The BC Agriculture Council says the heat, combined with the rising operating costs brought on by economic instability, has some farmers worried for the health of their crops.
Paul Pryce, the council’s director of policy and government relations, tells 1130 NewsRadio farmers are concerned hot and dry conditions will prompt water restrictions, making it impossible to irrigate fields.
“It’s an unfortunate situation to face as a farmer,” said Pryce.
“Part of the way through the year, late August, start of September, just when maybe you would be doing a cut of hay, let’s say, you’re told to turn off the taps — you’re no longer able to irrigate, and so you lose that entire year’s worth of work, that investment that went into that year’s crop.”
Pryce says a less-than-normal snowpack is one of the biggest threats, especially in the Okanagan, which has experienced successive years of drought impacting many fruit growers in the region.
“Producers have been really innovative in British Columbia,” Pryce said.
“Introducing new technologies to improve the efficiency of their irrigation, moving to less water-intensive crops, but even still, there’s only so much that you can do to adapt to these challenges.”
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Pryce said rising fuel and fertilizer costs are also hitting farmers’ profit margins hard.
“Because of some of the geopolitical issues that have been occurring recently,” he explained.
“And then of course, you have that additional risk of not having the paycheque at the end of it to pay off all this debt that you had incurred at the start of the season to be able to have an attempt at growing that crop before the water was shut off.”
—With files from Renee Bernard