Duane Hicks
The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. has invested $2 million to develop agricultural land, diversify crops, and expand business in the west end of Rainy River District.
The Rainy River Future Development Corp. has received $1 million to clear land on 2,423 acres and another $1 million to install tile drainage on 2,114 acres.
In total, the NOHFC is investing more than $6 million in eight projects across Northern Ontario.
“The whole idea is to increase the amount of agricultural land across Northern Ontario to give us more of a leg up; to help us diversify our economy,” said RRFDC manager Geoff Gillon.
“I think it’s great. It’s good for the district,” he enthused.
“It’s expanding our infrastructure, it’s diversifying our economy, and it’s actually helping our economy by helping different contractors in the west end.”
Gillon said tiling entails putting pipes in the ground so the land is ready for seeding earlier in the year and crops can stay on the fields longer, resulting in a better yield.
“That’s why the tile drainage is essential, especially in the Rainy River District,” he stressed.
“Because we are the ‘Rainy’ River District, some years are really wet, like last year,” Gillon noted.
“It would have been a big benefit to the farmers last year if they would have had the tile drainage in.”
With cash crops such as barley, wheat, oats, soybeans, and hay, Gillon said there’s more economic “inputs.”
“You have to till the land, you have to plant the seeds, you have to fertilize them,” he explained.
“There’s lot of activity so they have to hire people to do it.
“It’s going to create more employment in the rural area and there’s more inputs—the fuel, the machine repairs, the seeds, and the fertilizer,” Gillon added.
“It creates an economy around itself.”
The land-clearing aspect of the project is the step ahead of the tile drainage, where marginal or previously-cultivated land is “cleaned up” to make it ready for use.
Gillon said the process of determining which land-clearing and tile drainage projects are done—and where—is driven entirely by the producers.
The RRFDC has been holding meetings and working with area producers to tell them about the projects, ask if they want to be part of a consortium, and explain the requirements.
For example, any land clearing will be land that a particular producer owns. But before it’s cleared, it has to be approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for species at risk and other considerations.
Gillon said six producers currently are involved in tile drainage projects while 18 are on board for land-clearing ones under this most recent round of NOHFC funding.
He added the RRFDC will be applying for another round of funding from NOHFC, with seven or eight tile drainage projects and 16 or 17 land-clearing ones lined up for the future.
If a producer is interested, they should give the RRFDC a call at 274-3276 while the funding opportunity is available.
