“If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right.” – M.S. Swaminathan

To help things go right, the City of Delta, with financial support of the Investment in Agriculture Foundation and consulting services from Upland Agricultural Consulting, is undertaking a new Agricultural Plan to replace the existing plan that was completed in 2011.

Through input from agricultural groups and organizations like the City’s Agricultural Advisory Committee and the Delta Farmers’ Institute the Agricultural Plan is being updated to achieve two key objectives:

• Identify current issues facing Delta’s agriculture industry and actions the City could take to respond to these issues.
• Recommend changes to Delta’s current Official Community Plan policies and zoning bylaw as needed to support and protect the long-term viability of local agriculture.

In addition to input and guidance from the Agricultural Advisory Committee and the Delta Farmers’ Institute, the Agricultural Plan is benefiting from extensive community consultation conducted in recent months to understand key issues and opinions about agriculture in Delta. Vital input on the update has been provided through a town hall meeting in April, a number of stakeholder interviews, and more than 600 responses to a survey for producers and community members.

The updated Agricultural Plan will reflect key outcomes from the consultation efforts, including the need to protect farmland from non-farm uses, increase education on the benefits of agriculture in the community, and reduce or mitigate the threats of climate change in the agricultural sector.

One success story for the City of Delta in making sure local agriculture goes right is the Southlands. This project, approved in 2016, includes 950 housing units and 80,000 square feet of commercial space, $9 million provided to Delta in a reserve to re-activate the farmland, as well as 111.5 hectares of land given to the city for use as agriculture, natural habitat, public open space, and greenways.

This city land has been protected as farmland through inclusion in the Agricultural Land Reserve and leased to Brent Kelly Farms, who are now actively farming the majority of the land except for an 18.3 hectare community-based farm district area on the east portion, which is being leased by Century Group.

Crop yields from the land are improving under the operation by Brent Kelly Farms thanks to the city utilizing reserve funds to implement new irrigation and drainage projects in recent years. The laser levelling, drain tiles, and new irrigation are proving especially important this year because of the unusually wet spring and late start to warmer weather. Thanks to prudent planning, wise investments, and hard work, a reasonable yield from the land is still anticipated this year despite the weather challenges.

With the forthcoming Agricultural Plan update and the success of the Southlands farming project, the city is actively working to ensure farming in Delta continues to go right.