Government/Producer Talk Warms Up To Climate Change

Jul 30, 2015

With the climate getting warmer, talk of coping with the weather is getting louder.

Tuesday was the last of eight public discussions for the Manitoba Agriculture Risk Management Review Task Force. Morris hosted the final meeting, and before that the task force visited areas like Portage la Prairie, Dauphin, and Arborg.

Each meeting included an overview of how a changing climate has affected agriculture in Manitoba and what programs and strategies the government already has in place to deal with risk management. Then the meeting broke up into groups to discuss current programming, suggestions for future programming, and responsibilities of government and producers when it comes to adapting to climate change.

While many different farmers from many different areas voiced their concerns at the meetings, there were some commons threads in discussions.

"One of the most prominent reactions that farmers have told us, is that we have to be able to come up with a long-term strategy to plan for either the retention or the infrastructure dealing with the amount of water Manitoba is facing across the borders, both south, east, and west," says Bill Uruski, chair of the task force. "The other one is inability of the current AgStability program to meet the needs of farmers, as far as income protection."

At the very beginning of Tuesday's meeting, task force representatives said the point of the discussions was not to debate whether or not climate change is happening, but rather to listen to producer concerns regarding risk management policies.

Source : PortageOnline

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