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Arctic farms

Territorial farmers meet in Hay River

Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Hay River (Nov 27/00) - Farming can work in the North. All it takes, territorial farmers were told last week, are innovations like a community greenhouse and government support.

Farmers from the NWT and Yukon met Nov. 17-18 in Hay River to show off the successes in agriculture and also discuss the challenges faced by producers North of 60.

Inuvik's community greenhouse and Yukon farm policies were held up as examples of how the industry can take root.

Executive Director of the Territorial Farmer's Association, Evellyn Coleman said the weekend was very productive.

"It was wunderbar," Coleman said following the meeting. "I was quite impressed by the guest speakers and the turnout."

Effie MacLeod, President of the Inuvik Greenhouse Society, said the project has become a success in just two years.

She explained how the greenhouse has become self-sufficient, supplying residents with bedding plants to grow their own produce, as well as producing cucumbers and herbs that are sold to local hotels. Hundreds of hours of volunteer effort go into making the greenhouse a success.

"There is no reason why this couldn't be done in any community in the North," MacLeod said.

Yukon agrologist Tony Hill said pressure from farmers eventually led to an agricultural policy and a land base for production.

"In 1971, there were only 12 farms in the Yukon," Hill said. "A couple weeks ago I counted 182 agricultural producers on just over 200 agricultural titles."

Government sets policy

He said the success of farming in the Yukon came about after the government established an agricultural land program in 1982.

"We developed a policy by which we could transfer land from the federal government to the territorial government and dispose of it for agricultural land," he said.

Since inception of the policy, the Yukon government has also contributed over $45 million in equipment.

The government set aside 32,000 acres of titled agricultural land for whomever wanted to farm.

Hill said agriculture in the Yukon grew primarily out of the need to provide feed for the territory's 3,000 horses, used mostly by outfitters. Now, producers have varied to many other products.

Along with wheat, barley, oats and hay, they are raising elk for velvet antler and breeding stock, honey bees, broiler and laying chickens, hogs, horses, cattle and there's even a sod farm.

Coleman doesn't believe the NWT needs to set aside lands for agriculture, but she said a policy should be created based on "the need to feed."

"I don't think farmers care who they lease their land from," she said.

"I think we need to decide if we are going to be completely dependent on the southern industry, or whether we're going to be a territory that's going to feed our own people," Coleman said.