Technology may help B.C. farmers deal with dry weather

B.C. grain farmer Malcolm Odermatt says all he can do is pray for rain this spring after repeated droughts sabotaged his harvest last year.

Odermatt, who is also the president of the B.C. Grain Growers Association, has been working with his father since 2012 to farm about 800 hectares of land — just under a square kilometre — in the Peace region of B.C.'s northeast. He said seeding typically begins in May and although he's worried, he hasn't yet lost hope the weather will turn around.

“We're in a Class 5 drought, the highest classification you can get actually, and we've had low rainfall and not a lot of snow,” said Odermatt, who grows wheat, barley, oats, canola and grasses for seed production.

“We rely on run-off in the springtime, like the snowmelt, to actually replenish our soil moisture and we just haven't had that for a couple of years.”

Farmers in B.C. and beyond and industry analysts say dramatic swings in weather are hampering grain and other crop yields at a time when farmers are leaving the sector, and the only way forward is to adapt with technology.

Lenore Newman, director of the Food and Agriculture Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, said many in Western Canada have an “Old MacDonald image” of farming that is no longer realistic or sustainable.

“It's a giant, technologically advanced industry and it needs to be treated as such ... because the truth is Old MacDonald doesn't have a farm. He went broke in the '80s,” she said.

“If farmers are going to beat constant climate disruptions to grow food, they're going to need all the technology available and a lot more that hasn't been invented yet.”

Newman said research and funding into such agricultural advancements should fall to the government.

The federal Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement that it “is investing in climate change research and targeted initiatives to support farmers and the agricultural sector.”

Among such investments is Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Strategic Plan for Science, which allocated $855.7 million to go toward science, research and development in 2024-25

However, Newman said the programs are a “patchwork quilt” of resources that don't meet all research and development needs.

“The AAFC runs amazing programs but a lot of it is organized toward industries, not core research and development the way the funding bodies are (in other sectors),” she said.

“If you're a researcher, there's nowhere you can apply to get that core funding to develop a deep, long-term set of research.”

Newman said disruptive weather may be a main reason about one per cent of B.C. farmers are throwing in the towel each year, something she called a “quiet crisis.”

“B.C. is really vulnerable because the farms are so small, and the farmers tend to be smaller producers,” she said, comparing B.C. and Prairie operations.

Swinging weather conditions have already devastated the wine crop in the Okanagan as well as cherries and peaches. Newman said that luckily for grain farmers, their product isn't as vulnerable as fruit and vegetables.

“We're a grain and pulse powerhouse, so if we started having problems there, that's terrible for us,” she said.

Odermatt said the Peace region, which hosts more than 90 per cent of grain farmers in the province, has experienced “a whole pile of terrible weather events” in recent years.

He remains optimistic despite the current drought.

“Maybe suddenly the taps will turn on and we'll get caught up on all the moisture we've missed out on for the past year.”