Damage caused by Debby | Farmers in the fog

The tropical storm Debby – which dumped record amounts of rain in the St. Lawrence Valley – has forced farmers to face a new challenge: rivers overflowing into their fields. A month after the deluge, the rivers have returned to their beds, but submerged plants are now coated in sediment, agricultural producers note helplessly.

The day after the passage of Debbydairy farmer Mathieu Champagne crossed his fields in a kayak. With his sister who accompanied him on a paddleboard, they covered two kilometres as the sun set on the land of the family farm in Saint-Thomas-de-Joliette, which borders the Chaloupe River. “In some places, there was three feet of water across the field,” says the 27-year-old. “My grandfather is 84 years old and he still lives on the farm and he’s never seen anything like that.”

When the water receded, it left a lot of sand in his hayfield, choking his alfalfa. An almost total loss.

Sediment has also settled on corn plants intended for silage. The leaves are still stained. “Since there is soil, I really can’t give that to my cows,” explains the trained agronomist.

Uncertainty

Johanne Pagé, a large-scale crop producer in Sainte-Élisabeth in Lanaudière, has also noticed similar spots on her crops.

“It left a residue on the plant. It’s gray and then it’s stuck to the leaves,” she explains.

“Will it be marketable or not?” wonders Johanne Pagé. “It’s full of unknowns because these are not situations we’ve faced before.”

As of September 3, the Financière agricole du Québec had recorded 1,490 notices of damage due to excess rain for the 2024 growing season out of a total of 3,014.

“Among these 1,490 damage notices, the Financial estimates that 382 are related to the storm Debby for excessive rain and flooding,” confirms Karine Groleau, communications advisor for Financière agricole du Québec. “This storm particularly affected three regions: Lanaudière, Montérégie and Centre-du-Québec,” she continues.

On her 426-hectare family farm, Johanne Pagé grows corn, soybeans, beans and Maltese barley. The land is bordered by the Bayonne River, whose usual level rose 30 feet following the passage of the post-tropical depression Debby August 8 and 9.

The malted barley field is a total loss. “It was impossible, the barley was completely down and covered in this grey stuff. There was nothing you could do, you were walking through the mud that was a layer on top and it was slippery.”

His corn? “I have a field where you could no longer see any corn, the water was on top. It’s certain that the water got into the ears. Will it cause mold? It’s too early to say and it’s too early to quantify the damage to the crops, for me as well as for others,” emphasizes the woman who is also president of the Lanaudière grain producers’ union.

Record rains

According to Environment Canada, the remains of Debby caused record rainfall on August 9 in southern Quebec. In the space of 24 hours, between Montreal and Trois-Rivières, the rainfall generally exceeded 120 mm, a phenomenon that corresponds to a “100-year return period”, which makes these rains “extremely rare”, “even unique”.

“Similar amounts of rain have a chance of occurring once every 100 years,” summarizes Michèle Fleury, meteorologist at Environment Canada.

“The waterways in Quebec are generally [conçus] for 20-year recurrences,” explains engineer Robert Lagacé, a professor for 50 years in watercourse management and underground drainage at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at Laval University. “We know that 100-year events will overflow.”

Solutions exist, but they require significant investment. He cites the example of setting up dikes to prevent water from entering the land or underground pumping stations to lower the water table below.

“It’s a complex subject and one of the elements is that at present, there is less and less expertise at the Ministry of Agriculture to advise farmers on these issues. Farmers are a little helpless,” he notes.

And the market gardeners?

Debby may have a greater impact on market gardeners if September is rainy. Carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, beets and potatoes are the crops most at risk of suffering from excess water at this time.

“The water from August 9 came in quickly because the soil was dry,” explains the president of the Association of Market Garden Producers of Quebec, Catherine Lefebvre.

On the other hand, August was particularly rainy.

The situation is not widespread across the province.

“There are storage products that will not be available in the fall, but there are regions that are spared. Will there be a general shortage of stock to supply Quebec’s chains and grocery stores? At this time, I wouldn’t think so, but […] 2 inches of rain like that every week, I don’t know what it’s going to look like. The beginning of the year was superb. Then, in some areas, it’s going to be catastrophic.”