Mandatory crop rotation winning farmers' applause

A mandatory three-year crop rotation could be a real hot potato if the provincial (Prince Edward Island) government attempts to legislate it this fall, suggest some farmers who applaud the Commission on Nitrates in Groundwater report.

The report was made public on Tuesday (July 8) and calls for a replacement of the current legislation on crop rotationwhich critics contend is filled with loopholeswith a legislated and enforced policy to help reduce nitrate leaching into groundwater.

Not everyone will like it or want to be told what to do, but its the right thing at the right time, said veteran grower Robert MacDonald of Belle River, who grows about 1,000 acres of crops with brothers Albert and Murray.

Most Islanders are under the impression the potato industry already follows a three-year rotation.

The former Binns government established a voluntary crop rotation policy about six years ago, but the effort is filled with concessions and largely ignored. Even the Department of Agriculture allows a two-year rotation on strip and terraced fields.

Its absolutely essential that mandatory rotation is put in place by the government, said long-time potato grower Leslie MacKay of New London.

Farmers on a two-year rotation are mining the soil and causing even more contamination.

Mount Stewart potato grower Danny Hendricken insists that mandatory three-year rotation must be implemented once and for all.

I applaud it, we practice it already, and so should everyone in the industry, he said. I dont believe the majority of farmers will oppose it but we have a problem with nitrates and we need to address it.

MacKay originally opposed efforts to legislate three-year rotation because he resisted any bureaucracy trampling onto private operations. However, he says while the farming community has tried, it has largely failed to police and regulate itself overall.

The government must not only implement mandatory three-year rotation but enforce it, he said. But I predict strong opposition from farmers.

MacDonald said his family operation in the southeastern part of the province experimented with a two-year rotation on a 10-acre field a few years ago only to discover the soil was so degraded that crop quality suffered.

A two-year rotation wasnt worth it in our opinion. Weve followed a three-year rotation here for decades and it should be provincewide.

(This article was originally published in The Guardian.)