Marginal Lands

On the Prairies, land use conversion of marginal annual croplands to perennial crops helps the conservation of erosion-prone soils. Permanent forage cover minimizes the effect wind and water erosion can have on susceptible farmlands and reduces off-farm impacts, such as soil drifts along roadsides and sedimentation of streams and waterbodies.

Under the Permanent Cover Program (PCP), land marginal for annual cultivation and cereal production was converted to long-term forages. Approximately 15,000 parcels of land totaling 1.28 million acres was involved in the program. Local landowners made either 10 or 21 year commitments to maintain perennial cover on these lands.

The new Greencover program, a $110-million national initiative, encourages landowners to convert marginal cultivated land to permanent cover and to manage existing forage lands and critical habitat areas in a more sustainable manner. This program has additional environmental benefits to Canadians by increasing carbon sequestration in the soil (carbon held in the soil does not become a greenhouse gas); protecting the land from wind and water erosion; preserving water quality; and improving the habitat for wildlife, which in turn enhances biodiversity.

Agricultural researchers continue to work with AAFC-PFRA and provincial agricultural departments to better understand the relationships that determine the variability of soil productivity and crop yield on marginal land. Browse the following sites for additional information.

What can you do?

Marginal lands are often best suited to growing forage crops on a permanent basis. Although forage establishment may be difficult and more costly in the short term, the long-term economics are generally quite favourable on these lands. But if you do not wish to pursue this option, what else can you do?

The one thing that should be foremost in your mind is to keep some kind of cover on the soil, especially in early spring -- the most erosive period of the year in the majority of cases. This can be accomplished in a number of ways.

• You can spray in the fall rather than cultivate, leaving the stubble as protection from wind and water.
• Alternatively, you can produce fall-seeded crops like fall rye or winter wheat.
• Or, in the case of a summerfallow year, a cover crop could be grown. It should be stressed that if summerfallow is part of your rotation, chem-fallow would be worth considering.

Any of these options will protect your soil and maintain the status quo. The options that have proven unsuitable time and again are excessive tillage and black summerfallow. However, there are some practices that may actually improve the condition of your soil, and further reduce the risk of erosion.

• Direct seeding has been a popular choice recently.
• Other options require using green manure, or including an annual or biennial forage in your rotation. At the very least, you should consider continuous cropping. Practices like these increase organic matter levels in the soil. Increased organic matter leads to improved soil structure which, in turn, leads to better protection from wind and rain erosion.

The best solution to the problem of marginal soil is still forage production. Perennial forages can be grown successfully on marginal land. A number of forage species is available for almost any marginal soil situation.