At an event in Vauxhall, the province announced $19-million in funding to help update irrigation infrastructure and improve the agriculture industry’s productivity. That’s an increase of $5.5 million from last year.
According to Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation RJ Sigurdson the Irrigation Revitalization Program will continue to have an impact on irrigation-oriented producers across the province.
“This program has had a huge impact on irrigators in… modernizing their irrigation systems and finding efficiencies that allow them to irrigate more land while using the same amount of water,” explained Sigurdson.
Irrigation supports about 1.5 million acres of crop production in the province, producing 28 percent of the provincial agricultural gross domestic product. Walter Unruh of the Bow River Irrigation District has a good idea about where his district will be spending its percentage.
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“The biggest impact I feel that would have on us is pipelines. Pipelines that we can do right now will save us water and that’s where we focus, on the best saving of water for each pipeline that we build. That means that that canal won’t till out and then drain out of our district, we can keep that water and save it.”
In previous years irrigation districts also targeted pipeline construction. In 2022, 9.2 kilometres of open canals were converted to pipelines and this year looks similar.
But laying pipe is not all that this investment is going to be used for, according to Richard Phillips, the vice chair of Alberta Irrigation District Association.
“With use, 50-year-old infrastructure wears out and needs to be upgraded again,” explained Phillips “So, it’s an ongoing need just like any infrastructure, but it is so important to have reliable infrastructure so farmers can count on the water getting there when they order it.”
It’s an ongoing financial need that Unruh feels that the province ought to be planning for.
“I would like to see it increase each year for ten years yet. I’m saying ten, and we don’t know what could happen in the future…It could be beneficial for the district in other ways too.”
According to Phillips, the effects of this investment will not be fully felt until next year.
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