Farmers donate wheat crop to Ethiopia

Sylvia Macbean
The Leader-Post


Monday, September 29, 2008


MARYFIELD -- Farmers from the Crossborders Community Project in Maryfield in southeastern Saskatchewan and Kola, Man., came together recently to harvest fields of wheat to be shipped to Ethiopia -- before harvesting their own crops.

"These farmers that were harvesting were doing so with their own crops out on the field,'' said Jan Neufeld of the Kola area of southwestern Manitoba. "As soon as they get these fields finished, they will be going back to finish their own harvest.

"My husband Don and my son Miles put the crop in," she said.

Other farmers helped to sow the crop last spring for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. All the farm work was donated by farmers.

The crop recently received heavy rains and was downgraded to feed. The wheat was sold to a livestock producer and was being ground into feed after it was delivered to the Kola, Man., mill.

Proceeds from crops are used to provide food for the hungry in developing countries around the world.

This year, crops are being grown by many volunteers groups across Saskatchewan.

Cameron Wiebe and his neighbour, Neil Mehrer, grew Canadian Prairie Spring (CPS) white wheat in the Churchbridge area. The CPS wheat will be sold for either ethanol production or to make flour.

"One neighbour provides the land and one neighbour provides the work. We grew 160 acres in the Churchbridge area. We try and get as much support for the fertilizer and inputs as we can. Some of it will go to an ethanol plant and there are local markets at the elevator as well for this wheat. When you deliver it locally, they just take care of it," Wiebe said. Wiebe plans to harvest their crop next week.

The Wiwi Growing Project in the Gravelbourg-Shamrock area has 10 growers who have signed up to grow and designate several acres of their crops for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

"We had asked growers in the area to commit some acres to the project. It should amount to a good donation for the Canadian Foodgrains bank this year," said Mervin Costley, with the Wiwi Growing Project.

"Farmers wanting to donate grain for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank can do so at their local elevator or grain terminal," said Janelle Peterson, resource officer with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

A Canadian Foodgrains Bank shipment of 6,400 metric tonnes of Canadian wheat arrived in Ethiopia in August and is being distributed to people impacted by the growing food crisis in Africa.

According to the Famine Early Warning System Network, nearly nine million people in the Horn of Africa need immediate humanitarian assistance in the next three to six months. About four million of those people live in Ethiopia.