On Wednesday, Agriculture Minister David Marit announced more than $19 million for irrigation development to help sustain irrigation infrastructure once owned by the province.
Six irrigation districts will share in the Irrigation Rehabilitation Program funding:
Luck Lake Irrigation District, to receive up to $3.8 million over five years.
South Saskatchewan Irrigation District, to receive up to $9.5 million over five years.
Riverhurst Irrigation District, to receive up to $3.8 million over five years.
Moon Lake Irrigation District, to receive up to $159,005 over five years.
Grainland Lake District, to receive up to $441,180 over five years.
Miry Creek Irrigation District, to receive up to $153,710 over five years.
The Miry Creek Irrigation District will also receive a one-time payment of $1.3 million from the ministry to repair the water intake portion of their pumping system as part of the asset transfer agreement.
Irrigation plays a key role in the Province helping to provide a consistent source of moisture while enabling producers to grow more diverse crops and increase the number of livestock that can be supported.
Marit pointed out that more than 55,000 acres of irrigation were developed between 2020 and 2023.
"This investment will help keep this infrastructure working and help our producers for years to come. These funding agreements will also help us reach our Growth Plan target of 45 million metric tonnes of crop produced by 2030."
Irrigation Saskatchewan’s co-chair Aaron Gray says the future of our agriculture industry and producers is closely tied to water resource management, and infrastructure management is critical to our ongoing efforts to meet those long-term needs.