Ministry of Agriculture
AGRICULTURE WATER — FACTSHEETS AND PUBLICATIONS
Welcome to the Sustainable Agriculture Management Branch webpage listing publications that are available relating to agriculture and water in British Columbia.
This webpage illustrates some of our most popular publications - listed below. Some of the publications shown on this page are available for a fee, others are free. For those with a fee, instructions to order are included on the link to the publication.
As well, the Branch has many other factsheets, manuals, guides and publications on several agriculture water topics. View our Publications webpage and click on the WATER topic in the blue menu to the left.
You will then be able to choose from a list of sub-topics that will take you to the other information we have available. There is a fee for some of the listed publications but most are available in PDF format for free and may be downloaded to your printer.
AGRICULTURE WATER DEMAND MODEL - Okanagan Basin
The Agricultural Water Demand Model was developed to provide current and future agriculture water demands for the Okanagan Basin. The intent of the model is to help fulfil the province’s commitment under the Living Water Strategy to reserve water for agricultural lands.
The model calculates water use on a property by property basis and sums each property to obtain a total for the entire basin or sub basins. Crop, irrigation system type, soils and climate data are used to calculate the water demand. Lands within the Agriculture Land Reserve were included in the project.
A report is also available for the following areas of British Columbia: |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||
| Nicola Watershed | Cowichan Valley | Kettle Watershed | |||
 |
 |
 |
|||
| Similkameen | Metro Vancouver | Regional District of Nanaimo |
|||
BC IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT GUIDE
The B.C. Irrigation Management Guide assists British Columbia's farmers and ranchers to optimize water use, thereby improving water management during times of drought, long-term climate change, and competing uses of the water resource.
This publication provides a comprehensive Irrigation Management Plan for sprinkler, trickle, centre pivot and traveling gun systems.
CHEMIGATION GUIDELINES FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA
Chemigation is the term used to define the practice of applying chemicals to a crop through an irrigation system. In agriculture, the type of chemicals applied are generally fertilizers to promote crop production and plant growth.
This publication, Chemigation Guidelines for British Columbia, provides information on the design and operation of chemigation systems. Guidance on the selection of chemicals and methods of calculating chemical injection rates are also given.
BC AGRICULTURAL DRAINAGE MANUAL
Agricultural drainage is and essential part of farming. This publication contains over 280 pages of valuable information on guidelines for agricultural drainage in British Columbia.
The manual is intended as a general reference although specific drainage design criteria are included. It describes generally accepted drainage practices and principles, yet is not meant to be the sole source of information on soil and water management.
The BC Agricultural Drainage Manual was developed with the following purposes in mind:
- Help farmers improve drainage through better soil and water management
- Assist farmers in identifying drainage problems and finding appropriate solutions
- Provide professionals with design parameters of drainage systems
- Provide ideas and technical information on proper drainage practices
- Surface drainage design
- Subsurface drainage design
- Controlled drainage and subirrigation
BC LIVESTOCK WATERING FACTSHEETS
You may create a BC Livestock Watering Handbook from a collection of several individual factsheets. The factsheets are grouped into seven different sections.
These factsheets contain information for planning and constructing outdoor livestock watering systems for both summer and winter in British Columbia, Canada.
Click on the Table of Contents shown on the second page of the link to view all the factsheets available.
BC FROST PROTECTION GUIDE
The intent of this publication is to provide information on frost occurrence and protection thereof to producers and agri-business personnel.
While, for the most part, the BC Frost Protection Guide is of a general nature, information on designing a sprinkler irrigation system for frost protection is included.
This publication also explains the types of frosts that may occur, passive and active methods of frost protection.