Agriculture Extension Specialists Commemorate 15 Years of Regional Services for Producers

CANADA, May 7 - Released on May 7, 2024

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Agriculture is marking 15 years of highly successful work by agriculture extension services that continues to provide producers with relevant, timely information to help ensure the profitability and sustainability of their operations.

Since 2009, teams of extension specialists throughout the province have worked directly with farmers and ranchers, as well as with producer groups and industry agrologists, to ensure they have access to the agronomic and business support they need, when they need it.

"It has been 15 years since we reopened the remainder of the extension offices, which were closed by the previous government of the day," Agriculture Minister David Marit said. "The goal has always been to ensure that we are providing the right services to our agriculture producers in the best way possible - at the community level, where producers live and work."

The establishment of the regional offices in 2009 created an increased presence in rural Saskatchewan to refocus previous services back on meeting the needs of primary producers, with each office staffed by a complement of agriculture specialists in livestock and feed, crops and irrigation, programs, range management and agri-environmental areas.

There are approximately 45 extension specialists in total based in regional offices in 10 communities across Saskatchewan, with the Agriculture Knowledge Centre (AKC) in Moose Jaw serving as a call centre and first point of contact for program and service inquiries from farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses.

In the past year alone, the AKC and regional offices responded to nearly 12,000 inquiries through telephone, email, text, office visits and farm calls. Among the variety of activities and services they carried out in 2023-24, extensions specialists:

• Provided 214 technical, informational and program-related presentations at extension events, industry meetings and schools and conducted lectures at the University of Saskatchewan on topics such as seeding marginal acres and forages and crop disease identification and management;
• Organized or partnered on 57 virtual, in-person and hybrid extension events, attracting roughly 6,500 participants; and
• Received 763 applications, fielded nearly 300 inquiries and completed 48 program audits for the Farm and Ranch Water Infrastructure Program alone.

Enabling producers to remain competitive, sustainable and profitable is central to Saskatchewan's key long-term economic growth targets for 2030, some of which rely on agriculture. The Growth Plan goal of increasing the value of agri-food exports to $20 billion has already been surpassed years ahead of schedule, with $20.2 billion in 2023.

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