Divided by the wide St. Lawrence River, southern Quebec appears to be awash in water, but farmers say dry spells and heat waves are increasingly drying out the ground and threatening their crops. One of the key ways farmers are adapting is by working to improve soil quality. Good-quality soil drains better, but it also holds moisture — which is important when dry spells follow heavy rains, Ghislain Beauchemin said.
“What we’re seeing a lot is … hotter temperatures. We feel it, it brings more heat waves, and the heat waves are affecting the crops,” he said in an interview.Éthier, whose primary crops are strawberries, raspberries and blueberries — but who also grows beans, cucumbers, peppers and cherry tomatoes — said the late strawberry crop is most affected by the heat. “When the root system of the strawberry exceeds 30, 32 degrees, it creates an enormous stress.
And the issues are likely to get worse. Éthier’s farm is a “pilot farm” with Agriclimat, a program created by the Conseil pour le développement de l’agriculture du Québec, a non-profit organization that supports sustainable agriculture in the province. Adding organic matter to the soil can also capture carbon and could reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer he uses in the future, reducing his farm’s greenhouse gas emissions. But it’s a long-term process and one that costs money — the fields that are being used to grow cover crops aren’t yielding products he can sell.