Drought conditions in Canada at Feb. 28, 2022. (Map courtesy Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)

Most of Prairies still very dry, but recovery possible

Southern Manitoba considered out of drought

MarketsFarm — Despite the Prairies receiving above-normal amounts of precipitation during February, the great majority of the region remained highly vulnerable to more dryness going into spring, according to the Canadian Drought Monitor. The monitor’s latest report showed those areas of the Prairies tackling extreme drought to have retracted somewhat. As of Feb. 28, that […] Read more

(Creativex/iStock/Getty Images)

Flooding in Manitoba hinges on coming spring melt

MarketsFarm — Manitoba’s Hydrologic Forecast Centre (HFC) released an initial spring flood outlook report Friday citing the risk of moderate to major flooding in most the province’s southern basins. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said the amount of flooding will depend on weather conditions from now until spring melt. The HFC advised that, while […] Read more


AAFC’s Drought Monitor map effective Jan. 31, 2022. (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)

Drought conditions ease slightly across Prairies

MarketsFarm — Mixed precipitation throughout January helped drought conditions improve across much of the Canadian Prairies during the month, according to the latest Drought Monitor report from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), released Tuesday. Conditions have deteriorated in some areas, however, and the majority of Western Canada was still in some kind of drought state. […] Read more

Irrigation packs a big economic punch

Irrigation packs a big economic punch

Reading Time: < 1 minute Irrigation is an economic engine that keeps on getting bigger and contributing more to the provincial economy, according to a new study commissioned by the Alberta Irrigation Districts Association. The study concluded the economic contribution of irrigated crop and livestock production along with irrigation-related food processing and certain non-irrigation benefits added $5.4 billion annually to […] Read more


Both of these canola plants were sown on the same day, with this photo taken about four weeks later. The one on the right was grown in a regular greenhouse under natural 12-hour light.

When it comes to new varieties, there’s a need for speed, says breeder

Creating the equivalent of a 22-hour day can speed up variety development by six times

Reading Time: 4 minutes Combining ‘speed breeding’ with new genomic tools will be able to deliver big dividends for farmers in the coming years, says a plant breeder using the accelerated breeding technique. “It really highlights that we can bring these technologies together to improve genetic gain in the crops of the future,” said Lee Hickey, an associate professor […] Read more

Canadian Drought Monitor map of drought conditions and intensity in Canada at Nov. 30, 2021. (AAFC)

Precipitation eases drought conditions on Prairies

Hardest-hit Manitoba sees 'modest' improvements

MarketsFarm — Varied amounts of precipitation are either maintaining or alleviating drought conditions in much of the Prairies, according to the latest nationwide drought map from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) Canadian Drought Monitor (CDM). The latest assessment for the period ended Nov. 30 showed very few areas of worsening drought in the region with […] Read more


There will be a lot more of these highly productive circles on the southern landscape under a massive irrigation expansion.

The province’s ‘historic’ irrigation expansion has got even bigger

Two new districts join in and now nearly a quarter of a million more acres will be irrigated

Reading Time: 2 minutes It was a low-key announcement with some very sizable numbers. A historic expansion of Alberta’s irrigation network is getting bigger — another 30,000 acres are being added at a cost of $118 million. The expansion was announced earlier this month by Premier Jason Kenney without the fanfare of the original announcement a year ago, which […] Read more

Solar arrays are transforming the Alberta landscape. Brooks Solar (middle) was hailed as Western Canada’s “first utility-scale solar project” when it came online in 2017. But it and ones like the recently completed Alberta Solar One project near Burdett (upper right) are tiny compared to the 465-MW Travers array (in background) currently under construction in Vulcan County. In fact, they’re smaller than two new projects the Atco Group will build in Calgary, the 37-MW Deerfoot project near 114 Ave. and 52 St. SE (artist’s rendition at upper left) and a 27-MW cousin to be built near Barlow Trail (not shown).

THE NEW ENERGY BOOM: The sun is shining on Alberta’s solar industry

Every sector of Alberta’s solar energy industry is seeing strong demand — including from agriculture

Reading Time: 6 minutes Alberta may be oil and gas country, but right now, another natural resource is booming in the province — solar energy. “Alberta is by far the fastest-growing solar market in Canada right now,” said Nicholas Gall, director of distributed energy resources for the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. “Large corporate buyers — companies like Amazon, Budweiser, […] Read more


Soil electrical conductivity data can reveal a lot about a field, says Lewis Baarda, seen here placing an instrument called an EM38 in a sled prior to field mapping.

Could soil electrical conductivity maps give productivity a little jolt?

This easy-to-obtain data could be a way to use fertilizer and irrigation more effectively

Reading Time: 4 minutes You might get a charge out of this — measuring the ability of soil to conduct electricity, turning that info into field maps of moisture, and then using that info to fertilize or irrigate more effectively. Soil electrical conductivity is something that may already be measured on your farm. “Often if farmers are getting their […] Read more

Farmers plant saplings in a rice field on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India on July 5, 2019. (File photo: Reuters/Amit Dave)

India unveils new rice variety to reduce water use, labour

New Delhi | Reuters — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched an array of new high-yielding crop varieties, including herbicide-tolerant rice that can be directly sown into the soil, cutting expenditure on water and farm workers. In India, the world’s biggest rice exporter, the conventional method of rice cultivation requires farmers to sow […] Read more