| | Executive summary | Introduction | Shared responsibilities | Drought action plan | Strategies | Conclusion | Appendix: Proposed drought indices
Executive Summary
Recurring droughts are a part of Alberta’s climate. These droughts can cause serious impacts on the province’s agriculture industry. Ad hoc responses to an existing drought crisis may lead to untimely and costly short-term solutions. In contrast, a risk management approach to drought allows an immediate, effective response during a drought crisis, and also reduces drought impacts over the long term through planning and preparedness. Therefore, Alberta’s agriculture industry voiced a need for a drought risk management plan. The Agriculture Drought Risk Management Plan (ADRMP) addresses this need. The plan provides a framework for a coordinated, pro-active approach to reduce the effects of drought on Alberta farmers and ranchers.
Shared responsibility
The activities of the ADRMP are coordinated by the multi-agency Alberta Drought Management Committee (ADMC). The plan’s four main partner agencies — Alberta Agriculture and Food, Alberta Environment, Agriculture Financial Services Corporation, and Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration — provide scientific and technical input, develop educational materials and recommend delivery of programs.
Representatives of municipal councils from the drought-affected areas are invited to join the ADMC during the dry conditions. They provide local input and identify drought-response actions that meet local needs. Agriculture industry organizations are asked for input on ADRMP activities and to work with the partners to help producers prepare for and cope with drought.
Sound strategies
Three main strategies are used in implementing the plan:
- Drought Preparedness — taking action before a drought to increase the level of readiness by all stakeholders.
- Drought Reporting — conducting monitoring, evaluating and reporting on drought-related conditions.
- Drought Response — taking action during and immediately following a drought to reduce its impacts.
Positive results
Implementation of the ADRMP helps agricultural producers to be more prepared and less vulnerable to drought. It also ensures an effective response by government agencies to reduce impacts during a drought crisis.
Introduction
Alberta’s agriculture industry has suffered serious impacts from the recurring droughts that characterize the province’s climate. Ad hoc responses to a drought crisis often result in untimely, inconsistent and costly actions, and usually provide only short-term solutions. In contrast, a risk management approach to drought not only provides a well-coordinated, immediate response during a drought crisis, it also reduces drought impacts over the long term through planning and preparedness. As a result, Alberta’s agriculture industry voiced a need for a risk management plan to reduce the effects of drought on farmers and ranchers in the short and long term.
The Agriculture Drought Risk Management Plan (ADRMP) has been developed to address this need. The plan provides a framework for a coordinated, pro-active approach to mitigate the effects of drought in the agricultural areas of Alberta.
Implementation of the plan:
- provides up-to-date, accurate information to help farmers and ranchers be more prepared and less vulnerable to drought;
- ensures pro-active, coordinated and effective actions; and
- ensures a consistent, fair response to drought.
Shared Responsibilities
Alberta Drought Management Committee
The Alberta Drought Management Committee (ADMC) is the coordinating body of the ADRMP. The committee has a minimum of one representative from Alberta Environment, one from Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), two from the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC), and three from Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD).
Partner agencies
The plan’s four main partner agencies — ARD, Alberta Environment, AFSC, and PFRA — collect, analyze and distribute drought-related data, develop and deliver drought-preparedness information to agricultural producers, and recommend delivery of drought-related programs.
Municipal councils
A Council representative from each affected municipality is invited to join the ADMC while dry conditions prevail in the municipality. The representative can provide input on the local situation and work with the other ADMC members to identify drought response options suited to the municipality’s specific needs.
Industry organizations
Agricultural industry organizations are asked to provide input on various ADRMP activities and to work with the partner agencies in helping producers to prepare for and cope with drought.
Drought Action Plan
The actions taken under the plan will depend on the level of moisture shortage from normal conditions to exceptiona/notable conditions to extreme conditions. The level of drought will be determined objectively, using science-based drought indicators.
Actions during normal conditions
- Conduct ongoing activities such as: developing and delivering educational materials for farmers and ranchers; completing municipal-level preliminary assessments of critical water demands and estimated available water resources; and monitoring drought-related weather conditions.
Actions during exceptional/notable conditions
- Advise the Ministers of the partner agencies of the exception conditions and associated impacts.
- Inform partner agencies and affected municipalities of the exception conditions.
- Identify appropriate options for actions in the affected areas.
- Prepare communications for producers and others on the drought situation and drought-related activities.
Actions during extreme conditions
- Advise the Minister of ARD of the extreme conditions in the affected areas.
- Provide news releases and articles to the news media to inform the agricultural community of the extreme/dry situation.
- Recommend to the appropriate Ministers the identified possible options for responding to the extreme conditions.
Strategies
Three basic strategies are the foundation of the plan — Drought Preparedness, Drought Reporting and Drought Response:
Drought preparedness
The partner agencies conduct a variety of activities to improve drought preparedness including:
- identifying approaches to drought preparedness and risk management;
- packaging and delivering information on drought preparedness for producers;
- completing municipal level assessments of water demands and resources; and
- developing and maintaining inventories of water resources.
Drought reporting
The partners collect, analyze and distribute up-to-date drought information to help ensure appropriate responses to the current situation. To improve Alberta’s drought monitoring capabilities, 68 new real-time weather monitoring stations are being added in agricultural areas. The collected data will be analyzed to evaluate damage, forecast impacts, and assess options for drought response.
The ADRMP reports include maps of soil moisture conditions, drought severity and projected scenarios for drought conditions several weeks ahead. The reports use a combination of scientific drought indicators to accurately determine drought severity and duration. As the conditions become drier, the reports become more frequent and more detailed.
Drought response
The ADRMP provides a Response Toolbox of possible actions to implement in the face of worsening drought. The options range from mitigation during Drought Alert to financial stabilization during and following Drought. ADMC will work with Council representatives from drought-affected municipalities to develop recommendation for the best options for the local situation.
The Response Toolbox includes the following possible options:
- Provide ARD Water Pumping Program.
- Provide information to affected farmers on financial and personal counseling.
- Assess available feed supplies.
- Consider a water hauling program.
- Decide if water rationing is required.
- Consider a feed/livestock freight assistance program.
- Recommend areas for tax deferral designation.
After the drought, ADMC will coordinate an assessment of the ADRMP actions to determine what if any changes to the ADRMP are needed.
Conclusion
The ADRMP helps agricultural producers to be more prepared and less vulnerable to drought. It also results in a timely and effective response by government agencies to reduce impacts during a drought crisis.
Appendix: Drought Indices
How dry does it have to be for a situation to be called a drought? Drought indicators provide an objective way to define the severity of drought.
Accurate, consistent information on drought severity will help policy makers determine the appropriate response to the existing conditions.
A combination of the following four indicators is proposed for the ADRMP. Combining indicators will provide a more accurate assessment of drought severity. These four indicators, developed in various parts of the world, are currently being upgraded and fine-tuned to suit Alberta’s climatic conditions and information needs.
1. Precipitation departure approach
This approach uses the relationship between actual precipitation and normal precipitation to assess the onset of drought. The intensity, duration and extent of drought are determined by using an index based on the degree of precipitation departure below normal and the period of time that the condition has existed.
2. Enhanced palmer drought index
The Enhanced Palmer Drought Index (EPDI) is based on a commonly used drought indicator that has been enhanced with the addition of soil moisture budget modeling. The EPDI is suited to Alberta conditions because it is designed for areas that rely on snowmelt runoff as the primary source of surface water. The EPDI accounts for snowpack, mountain precipitation, stream flow, and soil moisture conditions.
3. Standardized precipitation index
The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) is based on the probability of precipitation determined by the long-term precipitation record. The SPI can help identify precipitation deficiencies relating to soil moisture, stream flow and groundwater. It is very good at detecting encroaching drought conditions and can examine drought conditions over multi-year periods. It also provides an easy way to identify the beginning and end of drought conditions and to describe drought severity.
4. Precipitation deciles
This approach arranges monthly precipitation data into tenths of the distribution, or ‘deciles’, in comparison to the long-term precipitation record. Dry periods are classified as follows:
| Decile: | Rating |
| 1-2 (lowest 20%) | much below normal |
| 3-4 (next lowest 20%) | below normal |
| 5-6 (the middle 20%) | near normal |
| 7-8 (next highest 20%) | above normal |
| 9-10 (highest 20%) | much above normal. |
For more information or copies of the operational Agriculture Drought Risk Management Plan for Alberta report, contact the Strategic Direction and Program Policy Division of Alberta Agriculture and Food at 780-422-9167. |
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