Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards part of the new Canadian Agric. Partnership funding for farm Stewardship

The Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards (SCCWS) is a stake-holder driven organization that creates awareness, education, and responsibility among all the users of the Swift Current Creek. A significant part of the work of SCCWS includes providing technical assistance to farmers and ranchers in the Swift Current Creek Watershed area when applying to the new Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) which replaced the Growing Forward 2 program that ended March 31, 2018.

CAP is a five-year $388 million investment by federal and provincial governments in strategic initiatives for Saskatchewan agriculture. SCCWS will provide application assistance to the Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change component of CAP programming, which includes the Farm Stewardship and the Farm and Ranch Water Infrastructure Programs.

Under CAP, many Farm Stewardship Beneficial Management Practices (BMP’s) need government preapproval before work can start on a project.

The exception is Variable Rate Mapping BMP. This change in application process is especially important to note if you are looking at seeding tame forages this spring. A similar BMP was available as a rebate under Growing Forward 2 but now under CAP, all permanent tame and native forage seeding projects need prior approval.

Seed mixes must be pre-approved by a Ministry of Agriculture Agri-Environmental Specialist. The soil that the tame forage is to be seeded must also meet the requirements of the BMP. Native seed mixes must be pre-approved to ensure the purist seed possible with no invasive weeds. As seed mixes need to be pre-approved please contact SCCWS at 306-770-4606 before purchasing seed to go over eligibility requirements and start the application process.

If you are planning to implement projects and access CAP funding over the next five years note that there have been changes made to general applicant eligibility. If you own, lease or rent property where livestock and poultry are grown, kept, assembled or disposed of, a Premises Identification Number (PID) is required for all applications to be approved. For more information you can visit Saskatchewan.ca/CAP or call the Agricultural Knowledge Center at 1- 866-457-2377.