The fledgling Manitoba Agricultural Water Management Association (MAWMA) is looking for members, particularly farmers and landowners as well as others with a interest in water management.
Formed in late 2012 with a focus on the tile drainage industry, the organization’s board of directors includes three producer members, representing potato, grain and speciality crop growers at its annual meeting last month.
“This was sort of our first formal meeting where we had producers and landowners there,” said president Chris Unrau. “It started with industry, but really it’s rooted in the discussions we had with clients about different issues facing agricultural water management. There was a need for a common voice.”
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Unrau heads Precision Land Solutions in Winkler which specializes in tile drainage. He said the association will continue to become more producer focused.
“We got the organization started, but ideally we think it should be farmer run and farmer driven,” he said. “But someone needed to start it and as an industry we did that. Now we’re moving into the second phase, which is having producers and landowners.”
He added that various producer groups have also expressed interest in the MAWMA, and he expects there will be opportunities for collaboration.
The association’s new mission statement is “promoting sustainable water management for agriculture in Manitoba.”
That will mean working with regulators, conservation district, municipalities and other stakeholders, said Unrau.
“We’ve got a few different priorities that we’re looking to work on this year,” he said. “Tile drainage is the thing that’s biggest on our radar right now; it’s the thing that got us going, what brought us together. But we do want to have a voice in all things water management, whether it’s surface drainage or irrigation.”
A meeting is planned this month with Manitoba’s assistant deputy minister of water stewardship, which the association hopes will be a first step towards gaining a seat at the table when it comes to drainage regulation.
“I think that’s one of the main reasons we formed, so that we could have a voice in that process. But at this point, we’re still working on getting to the table with the province,” he said. “We want to have discussions with them about how we can help them deal with their challenges in a way that still benefits agriculture, so that agriculture can still thrive even with new rules and regulations.”
Unrau added that the MAWMA also intends to become an educational resource for those looking at sustainable water management, and eventually develop a code of conduct prohibiting unsustainable or illegal drainage.
And with the price of farmland at an apex, interest in drainage is only expected to increase.
“Farmers are really looking to do more with what they have. They need to be efficient, they need to be able to service their overhead with their existing land base, and often being land just isn’t an option, or it isn’t economically feasible,” said Unrau.
But the organization’s next priority is getting the word out and engaging new members as it moves towards gaining not-for-profit status.
“Really at this point, we’d like to grow our membership so that we’ve got more farmers and landowners who are coming alongside to support us,” he said.
