Who will forget 2001? While the terrorist attacks on September 11 drew the world's attention, in much of Saskatchewan, 2001 was one of the driest years on record drawing some comparisons to 1988. If there was one bright spot in this gloomy picture, it was how little wind erosion took place. Direct seeding systems, adopted by producers over the past decade, did their job in keeping the soil in place. In years like this, the years of hard work to promote conservation farming by groups like SSCA, ADD boards, PFRA and Sask. Ag and Food pays off.
SSCA did issue a few press releases this summer encouraging producers to maintain enough crop residue to prevent erosion next year. However, it did seem strange that we had to respond to comments from the federal agriculture minister suggesting that producers should use more summerfallow to manage drought. Especially when you consider the amount of time and money the federal government has spent since the late 1980s convincing producers to reduce summerfallow and adopt conservation tillage systems!
In early July, the international community agreed on how carbon sinks could be counted in the Kyoto Protocol. As part of this agreement, agricultural soil sinks will be counted. Now that sinks are officially in, we can now get down to work to develop policies to create and maintain the largest sink possible. SSCA has been discussing policy requirements for agriculture and climate change at both the federal and provincial levels. Over the next month, prior to the SSCA Annual meeting, the Association will be holding regional meetings to solicit members' views on SSCA's future role with soil sinks.
At SSCA's 2001 Annual meeting, the membership passed a motion opposing the introduction of Roundup-Ready wheat due to concerns with managing volunteer plants. To express our concerns, SSCA joined a coalition of agriculture organizations opposing registration of Roundup-Ready wheat. The members of this coalition signed a joint letter to the federal minister of agriculture stating our position. In addition, SSCA developed a position paper expressing our concerns with this technology (RRposition.htm). The SSCA board also met with Monsanto representatives to discuss our concerns.
Elsewhere in Canada, Environmental Farm Planning (EFP) is a growing trend, especially since the E. coli outbreak at Walkerton. The EFP program is a set of planning tools to help agricultural operations voluntarily reduce their environmental impacts. EFPs were originally developed in Ontario but have been modified for use in six other provinces to date. This program has been very popular with producers in the provinces that have programs. Harold Rudy of the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, will be speaking on EFPs at the SSCA's Direct Seeding Conference in February, 2002. To develop similar planning tools for Saskatchewan producers, SSCA had hoped to receive funding through the Agricultural Environmental Sustainability Initiative (AESI). Unfortunately, our proposal was unsuccessful.
The new winter wheat project with Ducks Unlimited has allowed SSCA to refill the west central agrologist position in Saskatoon. Richard Szwydky joined SSCA in mid-September. Having one more person will strengthen our field programs, particularly in the west central region. I hope you all get the chance to meet and work with Rich in the coming months.
The Direct Seeding Conference will be held in Regina, February 13 and 14. This conference is one of the best agricultural conferences in the country. I hope to see you all there.