Curtis Dunnington felt relief when a recent storm moved through southern Saskatchewan, bringing rain to his lentil and pea crops.
The ground had become powder dry from years of consecutive droughts. There wasn’t much water in the reserves to help his crops recover from the harsh, dry prairie summer.
“Our last good crop was in 2020,” said the Swift Current area farmer.
National data suggests other farmers have also suffered from bone-dry conditions. Data from Statistics Canada shows that farmers have been receiving unusually high insurance payouts for crop damage over the past five years totaling $18.5 billion.
Areas across southern Saskatchewan and Alberta have been parched by droughts to varying degrees over the same period, with some farms more devastated than others.
