Ms Marla Riekman, Manitoba Agriculture, Canada. Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (GSER19), 15 - 17 May 2019 at FAO HQ.

1. Promoting the Adoption of Soil
Conservation Practices in Manitoba
Marla Riekman, John Heard & Tony Szumigalski, Manitoba Agriculture, Manitoba, Canada
Zero tillage has a long history on the
Canadian prairies, having been first tried
in the 1970s as a soil erosion and moisture
conservation tool. Much of the prairies
experienced periods of extreme drought in
the 1970s and 1980s, which led to
increased interest in direct seeding into
last year’s crop stubble. Standing stubble
allows for snow capture during the winter
months, improving soil moisture levels in
the spring, as well as reducing evaporative
losses. Additionally, the elimination of
tillage not only decreases the risk of tillage
erosion in hilly landscapes, it also
improves soil structure making the soil
less susceptible to wind and water erosion.
In Manitoba, much of the adoption of zero
tillage has been due to a need to conserve soil
moisture, protect the soil from erosion, and
reduce input costs. However, the rate of
adoption of zero tillage seems to have stalled
due to a range of regional differences, including
different moisture regimes and soil types.
Combining other soil conservation practices
such as the use of cover crops and perennial
forages may allow farmers to decrease tillage
over time, if not eliminating it altogether.
Beneficial Management
Practice
Cost Share
(government:
applicant)
Funding
Cap
Resource Management
Planning
50:50 $15,000
Establishment of a Cover
Crop
25:75 $10,000
Increased Frequency of
Perennials in Annual Crop
Rotations
25:75 $10,000
Perennial Cover for Sensitive
Land
50:50 $10,000
Improved Pasture and
Forage Quality
25:75 $10,000
Intercropping 50:50 $10,000
INTRODUCTION
SUMMARY
Table 2: AgAction Manitoba – Beneficial Management
Practices for Soil Conservation. Source: Manitoba
Agriculture§
§Manitoba Agriculture. Ag Action Manitoba Program for Farmers
Guidebook. Available at:
https://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/canadian-agricultural-
partnership/pubs/guidebook/ag-action-mb-program-guide-for-
farmers.pdf [accessed 16.03.2019]
While the adoption of zero tillage has been
farmer-driven, there have been
government-supported programs to
promote zero tillage over the years.
Financial incentives, in the form of
Beneficial Management Practice (BMP)
programs, have also been offered by both
the federal and provincial governments,
beginning in 2004. These programs have
provided financial assistance for adopting
reduced tillage practices; however, uptake
of these practices has remained low. For
this reason, Manitoba Agriculture not only
promotes zero tillage, but also promotes the
use of cover crops and perennial cover to
protect soil from erosion and improve water
use, especially where excess moisture limits
the adoption of zero tillage (i.e. the Red
River Valley).
The most recent program, AgAction
Manitoba, provides incentive funds for
practices to enhance soil conservation.
Farmers first complete an Environmental
Farm Plan (EFP), a self-assessment of
environmental risk on the farm. With the
EFP completed, farmers can apply to BMP
categories that address the risks they have
identified on their farm (Table 2). All
applications are rated based on their overall
environmental benefit, then ranked
according to their score. Farming practices
deemed to be creating the greatest risk to
the environment receive higher priority.
While the early adoption of zero tillage in
Manitoba began in the 1970s and 1980s,
wider adoption did not begin until the later
1990s (Table 1). Most of the acres under
zero tillage are restricted to the Western
side of Manitoba (Figure 1). The soils in
this region have historically been drier with
more rolling topography at risk of tillage
erosion. Since the late 2000s, Western
Manitoba has experienced abnormally high
rates of precipitation, combined with major
flood events in 2011 and 2014. As a result,
there has been a slight reduction in zero
tillage acres as farmers have struggled with
extremely wet soils.
On the eastern side of Manitoba, the soils
of the Red River Valley are high in clay
content and naturally are poorly to
imperfectly drained. Here soil moisture is
often in excess, due to spring flooding of
the Red River and the slow internal
drainage of the soil. Farmers in the Red
River Valley are generally resistant to the
concept of zero tillage, as heavy untilled
clay soil is slower to dry out and warm up
for spring seeding.
1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016
Total
Farmland
Acres
19.1M 19.1M 18.8M 19.1M 18.0M 17.6M
Total Cropped
Acres
11.8M 11.6M 11.7M 11.6M 10.7M 11.5M
Total Seeded
Acres
10.4M 9.8M 9.7M 9.6M 9.2M 10.3M
Summerfallow
† 6.2% 6.9% 5.4% 2.7% 2.2% 0.9%
Conventional
Tillage††
66.3
%
63.4
%
54.5
%
43.4
%
38.3
%
41.3
%
Conservation
Tillage††
28.7
%
27.5
%
32.6
%
35.3
%
37.7
%
38.7
%
Zero Tillage†† 5.0% 9.1%
12.9
%
21.3
%
24.0
%
20.0
%
*Statistics Canada. 2016 Census of Agriculture, Farm and Farm
Operator Data, catalogue no. 95-640-XWE. Available at:
https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/ca2016 [accessed 16.03.2019]
†Summerfallow acres are presented as a percent of total cropland
acres
††Tillage acres are presented as a percent of total seeded acres
Table 1: Reported Land Use and Tillage Practices in
Manitoba (1991-2016). Source: Statistics Canada*
PROMOTING
CONSERVATION
HISTORY OF ZERO TILLAGE
Figure 1: Percent of cropped acres in Manitoba under zero tillage by municipality in 2016. Source: Statistics Canada*