Farm-Scape, Episode 2140

Keystone Agricultural Producers is proposing an alternative approach to addressing water quality management on Manitoba farms.

Manitoba Water Stewardship is currently summarizing information gathered during public consultations into its proposed Water Quality Management Zone Regulation for Nutrients.

The proposed regulation, which categorizes agricultural land in Manitoba into four zones and sets manure nutrient application guidelines for each zone, has met stiff opposition from municipal leaders and agricultural commodity groups.

KAP Vice President Ian Wishart says the alternative was developed in consultation with member commodity groups and focuses on individual farm planning rather than a regulatory map based approach.

This is a radical departure with what has been proposed in Manitoba but, in many ways, it's similar to what has been used in some of the Maritimes provinces and in Quebec. Specifically we've proposed that a nutrient management plan approach be taken as compared to a regulatory map based approach.

This has several positive aspects. It deals with a lot of individual producers who happen to be caught because of the maps, particularly related to old data or incomplete data showing them to be in an area that was not farmed when in fact we know perfectly well that they've been farming there for many generations.

It's very localized, it's down to earth, something that producers can understand the benefit of. In fact I suspect that many producers will find tracking some of the nutrients on their farm, which a nutrient management plan will do will give them some idea of where their money is going and will help them perhaps manage the nutrients better even on the farm so it can be a win win for both the government and for the farmer.

Wishart says the package has been forwarded to Manitoba Water Stewardship as a discussion paper. He expects some sort of response within a week or so, noting there are some points that are likely to generate further discussion.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.