Agriculture committee  There was the question about mineral in manure. There may be two points out there. First of all, there's the ratio. When we're dealing with organic manure, there's a lot of phosphorus out there. When we apply manure, we try to respond to nitrogen needs. The nitrogen-phosphorus r

Agriculture committee  Is that question for Ms. Bennett?

Agriculture committee  Thank you for your question. There are actually two types of issues. First, there are issues in quantitative water management. Earlier, I expressed some concern about excess water, the winter flooding that results from precipitation onto frozen ground and from melting snow. Clea

Agriculture committee  Actually, there are two questions there. Trees certainly have their place in the system and specifically in terms of river management when they are next to waterways. We know that developing a riparian strip with trees or shrubs breaks the hydrologic connection between the field

Agriculture committee  Certainly. Ms. Bennett talked about the benefits of environmental goods and services. I have in mind a particular pilot project on the benefits of governmental goods and services in the RCM of Brome-Missisquoi. The initiative brings together 40 or so farming companies, along 80k

Agriculture committee  That is indeed the case. Your question is very pertinent. I would quickly like to recall the report on soil conservation published by the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in 1984. It is called “Soil at Risk: Canada's Eroding Future”, or the Sparro

Agriculture committee  There are certainly opportunities for increased performance. There was also, possibly, a reduction in some production costs. The benefits are there. In terms of management, water is relatively abundant in Quebec. This positions us very well, among other things, in terms of vegeta

Agriculture committee  Your question is very pertinent. The majority of the issues involve a number of players, as is also often the case for the solutions. One of the things I talked about was land development. There are a lot of concerns about this in the municipal world. It is also a concern shared

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I would. In short, increased growth of a few weeks at the beginning and end of the season will certainly increase yields. And we're already seeing this in vegetable production, where the growing season has increased by about two weeks. This will certainly extend some crops.

Agriculture committee  I understand that the problems in western Canada are very different from the ones in Quebec, for instance. Water licences aren't yet in use in Quebec. We don't really know the extent of the problem. A link needs to be made between the availability of surface and ground water, an

Agriculture committee  Your question is quite relevant. An inventory of the state of soil health has just been started in Quebec. This initiative is coordinated by my colleague Marc-Olivier Gasser, from IRDA, and is entirely funded by MAPAQ. The concern is clearly there. I agree with you on the relev

Agriculture committee  Okay.

Agriculture committee  In addition, there are currently gaps in the technical support of farm businesses for water management. So we need to develop technical and vocational training for agricultural advisers, in order to help companies use irrigation water more wisely. Thank you for your attention.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. First, I would like to thank the members for their invitation, and I would like to thank them for their interest in the research activities of our institute. My name is Aubert Michaud. I have been a soil and water conservation researcher at