News
Environmental stewardship important to P.E.I. growers

March 28, 2014, Prince Edward Island – The P.E.I. Potato Board says it’s time for the public to move past the history and look at what today’s potato growers are doing to protect the environment.

"Potato farmers of today have learned a lot from past challenges and are making tangible changes in production practices in order to farm in a more environmentally sustainable fashion," said Gary Linkletter, charmain of the board, in a recent press release.

Linkletter continued that P.E.I. farmers have the highest level of enhanced environmental farm planning in Canada and also farm under the most stringent environmental legislation in Canada. “This means P.E.I. potato growers meet and often exceed both voluntarily developed and regulated standards that are higher than any other farmers in the country.”

There’s visible difference due to the work being done. Through collaborative effort between potato growers and the P.E.I. Department of Agriculture, construction of soil conservation structures has resulted in 1.1 million feet of terraces, 2.1 million feet of grassed waterways and 270,000 feet of farmable berms

Potato growers also use a wide range of other tools to improve environmental sustainability, according to the release. The approaches include use of buffer zones and set aside of sensitive land, nutrient management, strip cropping, crop rotation and residue-tillage equipment, new and lower input potato varieties and integrated pest management. Another initiative, Farming 4R Island, partners with other industry players to foster beneficial management practices that protect soil quality and reduce nitrate levels.

Some preliminary studies performed as part of the Nitrate Pilot Project with the Kensington North Watershed Group in 2013 showed an 11.5 per cent increase in income per acre with supplemental irrigation due to increased marketable yields, while another test from the same study showed a reduction in average residual nitrate levels by 31.4 per cent. 

March 28, 2014  By Potatoes in Canada