Good afternoon. My name is Stephen Vandervalk, and I'm the Alberta vice-president for the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
I'm also the president of the Grain Growers of Canada, an umbrella farm organization representing 14 farm organizations, including the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association. I am here today representing the wheat growers association. I also farm about an hour south of Calgary.
Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today to speak on the development of a national conservation plan. For 42 years the wheat growers association has been a strong proponent of sustainable agriculture. In fact, it is reflected in our mission statement, which simply reads: “Our mandate is to advance the development of a profitable and sustainable agriculture industry.”
Today I will talk about how modern farm practices are improving the conservation of our soil, air, and water, and comment on the elements that the wheat growers association would like to see in a national conservation plan.
First I would like to discuss how farming practices have changed on our farm. I'd like to take you back to the 1970s and to how my dad used to farm with the tools of the day. Back then we used a chemical called Treflan to control wild oats. It had to be incorporated into the soil up to four inches deep. That meant you had to apply the chemical and then cultivate your field twice. After these operations, you had to apply fertilizer, and then seed, meaning you had to go over your land up to four times.
This excess tillage pulverized the soil and robbed it of valuable moisture, often lowering yields and leaving the soil susceptible to wind and water erosion. In my area we get very high winds. Watching your land blow or wash away is a very sickening feeling. The nutrients and topsoil that are lost often end up in our waterways, with negative downstream effects.
Thankfully those types of wasteful and erosion-prone practices are a thing of the past on our farm. Today we do not usually till the soil in the spring. Instead, we control weeds with a pass of the sprayer, and then apply seed and fertilizer in a single pass in a way that keeps disturbance of the topsoil to a minimum. These zero and minimum tillage practices have substantially reduced fuel consumption and minimized soil erosion on our farms while increasing crop yields dramatically.
The census of agriculture that was released last week confirms these trends. In the past 20 years, land seeded under zero or conservation tillage practices has gone from 31% to 81%. Less than 20% of the land is now prepared for seeding using what has traditionally been called conventional tillage practices. The result of this change in farming practices means that we burn far less fossil fuel today, and our soil organic matter in some places has increased 25% to 30%.
Another important development in the last decade or so is the widespread adoption of GPS technology in our field operations. The use of GPS has reduced our fuel consumption and reduced overlap in the application of seed, pesticides, and fertilizer.
Precision farming techniques, in which inputs are applied at various rates throughout the fields, are now also being adopted. Again, this offers the opportunity for farmers to be more judicious in their use of farm inputs and to use no more fertilizer and pesticides than are necessary to produce a good crop.
I do want to make a comment on organic agriculture. You might ask, why not cut out fertilizers and chemicals altogether? The wheat growers association respects farmers and consumers who make this choice; however, we note that it results in less food production per acre and requires increased tillage for weed control. According to crop insurance records, crop yields under organic production practices are typically one third less. That's one of the reasons why you do not see widespread adoption of organic operations in field crops. On the prairies, about 2% of farms are certified organic. We do not expect this number to change significantly, given the growing global demand for food.
It has been said that global grain demand will double by the year 2050. To meet this challenge, Canadian farmers will need to continue to be early adopters of new technology. With very little new arable land left to bring into production in the world, the only way to meet this demand is to grow more with the existing land base. We need an innovation agenda that allows us to produce more food per acre, more food per gallon of fuel, and more food with the same or less fertilizer.
To help us achieve this goal, we ask your committee to recommend that the following elements be included as part of a national conservation plan.
First, we would like a recognition that Canadian farmers have made tremendous strides in conservation practices over the last three decades, including the adoption of conservation tillage, reduced fuel consumption per acre, and better application of fertilizers and chemicals.
Second, include the fact that these practices have led to reduced soil erosion and energy consumption while at the same time increasing grain output per acre.
We also need a continuation of research directed toward farming practices that can allow farmers to reduce and improve the application of pesticides. In this regard, we note that prairie farmers have widely adopted the spraying technology research undertaken by Agriculture Canada. This research has improved the application of pesticides and has reduced damaging spray drift.
There needs to be an emphasis on an innovation agenda that promotes the development of new seed varieties requiring less water and nutrients. Such technology will lead to the development of drought-resistant wheat varieties. It could also lead to varieties that make better use of nutrients, which in turn would reduce the amount of fertilizers farmers need to apply, with less risk of leaching or runoff. Varieties that are more resistant to insects or disease will also reduce the need for pesticide solutions.
The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association supports conservation programs that provide payments to farmers for ecological goods and services. The ALUS, alternative land use services, program is one such program that has been developed and appears to be having some success. It is mostly privately funded, and quite frankly, we think it should remain so. In our view, there is greater buy-in from farmers and the general public if these programs remain privately funded rather than being just another government program that might be subject to budget cuts in the future. A privately funded program is more likely to be sustainable.
One area where government could be helpful in water management is in the development of a program that would assist farmers in improving their drainage systems and on-farm water management. In recent years, we have had excess rainfall in much of the Prairies, which has led to increased soil erosion and lost nutrients due to poor drainage capability. The Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association would welcome programs that assist farmers in adopting water conservation and drainage strategies.
In summary, let me emphasize that farmers continue to be good stewards of the land and leaders in soil conservation. Changes in farming practices over the past two decades have significantly reduced soil erosion and improved organic matter. We face a significant challenge to produce more food with the same or fewer resources. Strengthening conservation programs and creating an investment climate that allows new technology to be developed will ensure that we have the tools and ability to increase our food production while continuing to be good stewards of the environment.
Thank you for your consideration of our views.