Potato producers across P.E.I. say this summer has been among the worst in recent memory for drought-like conditions.
Andrew Lawless, operator of Hilltop Produce in Kinkora, has been running his irrigation system since the beginning of July, watering about 40 per cent of his crop once a week.
Despite that, he estimates he will lose about 30 per cent of his average yield because of the lack of rain.
“It’s very tough. It’s going to be quite a loss to the farm,” he told CBC News. “It’s the worst year since 2001 and definitely the worst year of my career.”
Lawless is not alone. Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board, said the board has been hearing from farmers across the province who are worried about this year’s crop.
The problem is not unique to P.E.I.; he said there’s been less rain that usual in many regions of North America, particularly in northeastern U.S. and Canada.
The board’s research team goes out weekly to dig up some potatoes to measure how they’re growing, in a process called sampling. Until about a week ago, crops were tracking close to the five-year average.
“But it’s apparent now that it’s going to be below average, you know, in more recent sampling,” Donald said.
“The concern is that it’s been too dry, and either some varieties have, we’ll say, [run] out of steam, or they’ve died off because of the drought conditions.”
He added that even drought-resistant, later-maturing varieties are struggling because there hasn’t been enough moisture for full development.
Donald said the financial implications could be significant. It costs more than $5,000 to grow an acre of potatoes, and seed-potato production costs even more. If farmers can’t at least recover that investment, he said they could be in trouble.
Looking ahead, he said high temperatures will continue this week and there isn’t much rain in the forecast for the next two weeks.
“Hope is diminishing for this year, but we’re still, you know… hopeful that it won’t be as bad as [2001].”
Harvesting has already begun in some areas, with the main harvest for potatoes destined for storage expected to start in two to three weeks. Most farms aim to finish taking in the crop by late October.
Donald said only about 10 per cent of the potato acreage on P.E.I. is irrigated, and that makes a big difference in drought years.
Investing in irrigation
On his farm, Lawless said the potatoes are currently at the bulking stage, when they put on extra weight. In his irrigated fields, the crops are still healthy, but the story is much different in non-irrigated fields.
“There’s no moisture there to help them bulk, and the ground is just like sand. There’s no structure left to the soil or anything. It’s very dry.”
And dry soil creates challenges during harvest.
“You need to be able to carry a bit of clay whenever you’re harvesting, and with the ground as sand right now, the clay would just sift through the chains like nothing,” Lawless said.
Without the clay, potatoes are more prone to bruising, which buyers don’t like.
“Once they bruise, they will rot, and it will create quite a challenge in storage as well,” Lawless said.
He’s thankful to have invested in an irrigation system, which relies on low-capacity wells going down 75 metres to feed irrigation ponds. The initial investment was costly, but he said it would be far more expensive to install today.
“I’m very happy with the investment I made,” he said, adding that he plans to expand irrigation soon.
I’m a big believer in climate change, and I can see the changes each year… We are going to have to invest more into new techniques to grow the crop.— Andrew Lawless
“We hope to grow it by at least a third for next year, and we’ll have more acres under, probably grow our percentage to 55 per cent for next year, and just keep growing it as we can.”
Lawless said this year’s situation makes him more concerned that these dry conditions will become more common as the climate changes.
“I’m a big believer in climate change, and I can see the changes each year. You look down to the south and the U.S. and in Canada, we’re poised very well to grow food for the world. We are going to have to invest more into new techniques to grow the crop.”
