This summer’s drought conditions have had a dramatic impact on local farmers, most of whom have never seen conditions so dry.

In other jurisdictions, drought is something that farmers are prepared for, with irrigation systems and the like, but in Newfoundland, few people have ever encountered extended periods of extreme heat with no precipitation.

This year, most of the island saw precipitation levels well below seasonal norms for May, June, July and August.

The President of the NL Federation of Agriculture, Wayne Simmons of Hammond Farms in Little Rapids on the province’s west coast, says climate change is something that’s playing out before our very eyes. He says some farmers are looking at mitigation measures never believed necessary just a few years ago.

“There are some funding programs available for buying irrigation systems and things like that. I think some farmers will look at irrigation, trying to see if they can get those systems put in place. But, you know, you’ve got to irrigate with water, so if you don’t have the water, on a large scale it would be hard to do it. I think you’ll see some vegetable farmers on a scale where maybe they can have enough water to still do their irrigation. Maybe you’ll see a lot of those people put systems in place.”