The province and federal government are launching a new program for Island farms and farmers to better prepare for extreme weather.
Combined, the governments are spending $1.3 million over five years as part of the Agriculture Resiliency Program.
The federal and provincial initiative will fund research projects in climate change adaptation, infrastructure resiliency, and mental and physical health for farmers.
And farmers like Rusty Bittermann say that’s a good thing.
Bittermann, who runs a cattle and sheep farm with his wife in Shamrock, in central P.E.I., said he’s excited about the new program.
“I think it’s great,” he said, adding his farm was visited when the program was in its design phase.
“We think across many years — actually, we think decades,” he said. “When we do things, we’re thinking, ‘how will this play out for the next generation that’s running this farm?'”
Bittermann is trying to make his farm as self-reliant as possible in case another event like post tropical storm Fiona, he said.
He’s building more barns, in case one is destroyed, and adding natural ponds for farm animals to drink from in case the power goes down.
The changing climate has made farming a challenge recently, he said, and this year has been no different.
His seeding plans for the pastures on his property were disrupted this spring because of weather, he said.
“We had a long period of drought at the beginning of the season,” he said. “We just didn’t have the rains we needed.”
“The heat and humidity seems to be going up step by step across the last three or four years. That combination of heat and humidity is really tough.”
