OUTLOOK - Most people from Outlook and the surrounding area are fully aware that the riverside community promotes itself as the 'Irrigation Capital of Saskatchewan'.
However, perhaps not as many are aware that the town's premiere facility dedicated to crop research and seemingly endless uses for widespread irrigation celebrated a monumental milestone in 2024.
CSIDC, the Canada-Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre located just off Highway 15 coming into town, marked 75 years last year. In recognition of such a feat, CSIDC partners Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan have signed another Memorandum of Understanding that will allow them to continue their unique partnership for the next five years.
Operating at the heart of irrigation in the province, CSIDC maintains a focus on adapting and improving irrigation technology, as well as monitoring the use of irrigation in both horticulture and field crop studies. The Centre's annual Field Day events, held every July, routinely draw sizable crowds comprised of people who are interested to see what the Centre has discovered next that will help producers with their next rotation of crops in the near future.
Dr. Erin Karppinen, a coordinating biologist at CSIDC, has a lengthy history with the Centre, working as a summer student in 2006 and 2007 and then being officially hired in 2020 with Irrigation Saskatchewan, and then in 2021 in her role with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
Karppinen's role sees her out in the field when she's not coordinating relations with other research facilities.
"I'm the coordinating biologist, so I do a bit of farm management and I also work with the irrigated field crop program," explained Erin, sitting down with this reporter. "It's tough to say what I do every day as it changes on a daily basis, especially seasonally, like in the summer when I'm out in the field a lot more. During that time, I'm managing and coordinating some of the research trials. We also have the Saskatoon research center that works out here, so a lot of times it's just liaising with researchers in Saskatoon and communicating what we have for land and both human and technical resources for them to establish their trials out here."
Dr. Karppinen says the location of CSIDC and the sometimes rapid change of tasks to carry out make it an interesting place to work every day.
"I really enjoy the different things that we do here every day," she said. "We talked about how every day is kind of something different, which is great. And you really can't beat the location of CSIDC here; I'm two minutes from home but I'm also somehow on a farm, and I see deer grazing outside my office. I kind of smile every time that I drive into work just because it's a really cool place and a really unique place to work."
With CSIDC marking an anniversary of 75 years, it shows that not only Outlook, but this sizable portion of the province has seen a lot of change and adaptation as far as agriculture technology and practices are concerned. The impact that the Centre's discoveries have made is something that will be felt for generations, and the way in which irrigation is approached on a yearly basis is something that will continue to adapt as our world continues to do so itself.
"I do know about CSIDC's history, but it's also something that I myself am kind of learning," said Erin. "It seems like every day I'll find a new piece about the history here, but as far as the impact goes, this place has always been at the forefront of irrigation since the inception in 1949 when they were pumping the water from the river. This was before they had that large-scale irrigation throughout the countryside, so from day one, that impact was impressive of being able to demonstrate practices before they were widely adopted. We're seeing that evolution and adaption throughout the years; even here, they had flood irrigation and then started getting low pressure irrigation systems, and even currently, we have one of the first automated variable rate irrigation systems in Canada, and we're looking at putting in some subsurface drip irrigation. So really, I do think the impact comes back to just demonstrating that irrigation technology and making sure that we're researching things that are relevant to people as things change in time."
Karppinen says that the work being done with potato varieties back in the 1990's is something that undeniably helped cement CSIDC's footprint in the agricultural industry and made many in the industry take notice of the work being done by Outlook.
In addition, the work being done with soils in order to bring them back to a state of productivity for growers is also something that stands out.
"These happened before my time, but I think that one of the claims to fame here is the concept of Northern Vigor," she said. "That was in the 90s, I believe, and that was demonstrating that potatoes grown in Saskatchewan are more vigorous than those grown in southern locations. That was all done here, so I think that's something really impactful to come out of the Centre. Another piece of research that I find really cool is that we have a field to the west of this building we're in and at one point, it was very saline soil that was very unproductive, and they were able to remediate that soil using irrigation. So, the combination of flushing it with the systems and then draining out, I think that's a really cool thing to show from the soil science perspective what's being done at the Centre."
Karppinen says that the annual Field Day events are always a blast, giving people an opportunity to see up close the work being done at the Centre and the waves being made in the ag industry as far as crop varieties and field studies. She says she hopes that it gives people a better or deeper understanding of the work being done at CSIDC.
"I hope so because with the annual field days, we do try and showcase the different research trials, and that obviously changes every year but we do try to get different speakers from the industry, government, and academia so that we have a very robust coverage of our research projects," she said. "I think the field days are really cool too because we always have the trade show, where you're bringing in the industry and giving people the opportunity to connect with people that are actually on the ground and providing these services or having these technologies, all in one space."
With 75 years of agricultural breakthroughs, landmark studies and growing crop varieties and possibilities under its belt, CSIDC has earned a highly reputable status in both the province and the country as a facility that works to advance agriculture and explore the possibilities.
Dr. Karppinen says that while many things have certainly stood out in the past, the future looks just as bright for CSIDC with the work being done today.
"Absolutely," she said. "We have some really cool projects that are looking toward the future, including season extension. If you look at, say, the times are changing to a warmer climate or weather climate, we're already looking at things with our high tunnels where you can kind of simulate a warmer environment and possibly diversify into some crops that don't have the heat units naturally throughout the season. The opportunity for diversification, I believe, there is a lot further that we can go."
