Nova Scotian blueberry industry hit hard by lack of rain

The multi-million-dollar blueberry industry is being hit hard this year due to dry conditions and a lack of rain.

The drought conditions have been so persistent that the quality of this year’s crops has been badly affected and is not salvageable.

The effects of the drought this year are very pronounced. It started really even at the early stages of the summer,” David Percival, director of the Wild Blueberry Research Centre, told The Todd Veinotte Show.

According to him, plants couldn’t even get through the blooming period.

Blueberries are about 85 to 90 per cent water, and regular rainfall during the growing season helps ensure the crop maintains its quality. This year, berries aren’t getting big enough, and they have a raisin-like appearance due to a lack of rain. It’s looking like the industry can’t rely on rainfall alone anymore due to climate change, Percival said.

Bringing in an irrigation system can also cause producers headaches.

“First, it is very costly to bring in a system, and secondly, where are you going to find the water?” he said. “The soils themselves are not the best agricultural soils to begin with; they don’t hold a lot of water to begin with.”

Percival says this year has been the worse he’s witnessed in 30 years.

“There have been other years that have been bad, but this is the first where I thought, ‘Okay, it’s really, really challenging,'” he said.

Rain fall lacking

Crops in the northern part of the province have been hit the hardest, but farmers are facing challenging conditions throughout Nova Scotia due to the drought.

Nova Scotia, eastern Newfoundland, southeastern New Brunswick and portions of Prince Edward Island shifted into moderate to severe drought conditions over the past month, says an Agriculture Canada update released.

Rainfall has plummeted to roughly 60 per cent of normal levels in Halifax, with 270 millimetres falling from April to the end of July, compared to average levels of 460 mm for the same period, the federal agency says.

The Halifax Regional Municipality has voluntary water conservation measures in effect, but many smaller, rural towns in northern Nova Scotia and the Annapolis Valley have brought in mandatory limits as their reservoirs run low.

With files from Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press.