For the last several years Yorkton Council has seen fit to declare Agriculture Week, and with good reason.
As Juanita Polegi, Executive Director of the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce has pointed out in making the request for the declaration, agriculture remains important to our city.
Agriculture accounts for one third of Saskatchewan's exports and one quarter of the jobs in the province, noted Polegi.
Saskatchewan has also become Canada's top agri-food exporting province in 2011.
Locally the agriculture industry significantly impacts the economy of the City of Yorkton with over 60 businesses directly involved in servicing the farming and ranching community, offered Polegi.
While the annual declaration, this year Ag Week runs Nov 3 to 9, is a good thing for the City to mark, a decision to provide land lease free to the Parkland College and East Central Research Foundation (ECRF) Research Farm for the past two years is a more positive move.
Research is always important to any business or industry, and that holds particularly true for agriculture.
The work of the local research farm is particularly important to area farmers since the data generated by the research relates directly to local conditions. The data translates back to farm conditions meaning it holds immediate merit on local farms.
The small investment, land without rental fees, is not a huge investment by the urban municipality, but it is a way to play a role in an important aspect of local agriculture.
And the City investment pays added dividends for the research farm, Glenn Blakley with the East Central Research Foundation (ECRF), partners in the farm with Parkland College told Yorkton Council Monday.
"We are sometimes able to use the donation from the City of Yorkton as matching money as an in kind donation to increase our funding from other sources," he said.
It is good that our local Council recognizes the importance of agriculture and is willing to invest in both recognizing the sector, and helping fund research for its future.
