The Crop Rotation Survey
The Crop Rotation Survey, conducted through the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan, benchmarks the changes and advancements made in crop production over the past 35 years. The purpose of this project is to evaluate farmers’ progress towards sustainable on-farm practices. The data will be used to inform governments and the public about the improvements in crop production sustainability.
The Crop Rotation Survey, initially launched in 2020, collects information on all aspects of farmers’ production, from seeding, fertilizer, tillage, and chemical application to harvest. In 2020, we collected responses from the periods of both 1991-1994 and 2016-2019. More recently, we collected information on crop rotations between the periods of both 2004-2006 and 2020-2024.
The survey is currently closed but stay tuned for upcoming research results from our most recent round of data collection.
More Information
Participation in the Crop Rotation Survey helps give farmers a voice when it comes to GHG emissions, carbon sequestration, and land and soil stewardship. Farmers are continuously adopting innovative and sustainable practices to improve the environmental footprint of Prairie agriculture.
The adoption of many of these sustainable practices have taken place in the absence of government involvement or mandate, yet agricultural and environmental policies often do not seem to account for their contributions. Participation in the survey will help to shape policy in a way that recognizes the steps taken by Canadian farmers towards improved environmental sustainability.
For more information on the Crop Rotation Surveys, please reach out to one of the following researchers from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics:
Stuart Smyth, Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Research Chair in Agri-Food Innovations
E-mail: stuart.smyth@usask.ca
Chelsea Sutherland, M.Sc.
Research Assistant
E-mail: chelsea.sutherland@usask.ca
Savannah Gleim, M.Sc.
Research Officer
E-mail: savannah.gleim@usask.ca
Previous Research
Research based on the 2020 survey responses has gained interest locally and internationally. Please see below for some of the results gathered in 2020 and stay tuned for upcoming results of our most recent round of Crop Rotation Surveys.