The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was a branch under

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC; sometimes Ag-Canada; french: Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada)''Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Agriculture ...

(AAFC), a department of the Federal

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

. The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration was established by an Act of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

under Prime Minister R. B. Bennett in 1935 in response to the widespread drought, farm abandonment and

land degradation Land degradation is a process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land. It is viewed as any change or disturbance to the land perceived to be deleterious ...

of the 1930s. Its mandate was to: "... secure the rehabilitation of the drought and soil drifting areas in the Provinces of

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

and

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, and to develop and promote within those areas, systems of farm practice, tree culture, water supply, land utilization and land settlement that will afford greater economic security..." With this mandate, the PFRA served to promote sustainable development on the rural prairies for over seven decades in the areas of air, water, soils, and biodiversity. Its mandate included detailed examination of various methods for

soil conservation Soil conservation is the prevention of loss of the topmost layer of the soil from erosion or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other chemical soil contamination. Slash-and-burn and other unsust ...

and enrichment. The PFRA tree nursery at

Indian Head, Saskatchewan Indian Head is a town in southeast Saskatchewan, Canada, east of Regina, Saskatchewan, Regina on the Trans-Canada Highway. It "had its beginnings in 1882 as the first settlers, mainly of Scottish origin, pushed into the area in advance of the ra ...

, which opened in 1901, distributed tree seedlings free of charge to prairie farmers to promote shelterbelt planting to reduce soil erosion caused by wind. PFRA also operated a network of Community Pastures across the prairies, which provided grazing for cattle and reproductive services on a cost-recovery basis. PFRA was also responsible for promoting and developing water supply projects across the prairie provinces, which included providing technical and financial assistance for individual farm water supply projects such as dugouts, wells, and pipelines, through a network of offices located across the Canadian prairie provinces. PFRA also planned and developed large scale, multi-use projects such as the St. Mary River irrigation district, the Bow River Irrigation Project, and the South Saskatchewan River Project (Gardiner Dam/Lake Diefenbaker). PFRA was also responsible for the development of numerous community water supplies across the Canadian Prairies, and built and operated a network of flood irrigation projects in southwestern Saskatchewan. PFRA expanded its role in promoting soil conservation in the 1980s, staffing agrologists in most field offices to provide expertise and administer funding programs, such as the Permanent Cover Program, which provided funding to farmers in exchange for seeding marginal lands to forages and grasses for extended periods. PFRA also promoted rural development in the 1990s, becoming involved in a diverse range of activities intended to create value-added enterprises (e.g., agroforestry, aquaculture) across the Canadian prairies. In 2008, PFRA was integrated with the National Land and Water Information Service (NLWIS) and Agri-Environmental Policy Bureau (AEPB), as part of the Agri-Environment Services Branch (AESB). The Deficit Reduction Action Plan, which was part of the Federal Budget of 2011, mandated departments to identify savings proposals amounting to 5% and 10% of their total operating and grants and contributions expenditures. In 2012, the Federal government announced that it would be ending the Community Pastures Program. Shortly afterward, PFRA's field offices were phased out and workforce adjustment was implemented. Federal funding for the PFRA's shelterbelt program to provide free seedlings of trees and shrubs to prairie farmers was discontinued in 2013 by the Conservative Federal Minister of Agriculture,

Gerry Ritz Gerry Ritz (born August 19, 1951) is a former Canadian politician. He served as member of the House of Commons of Canada for Battlefords—Lloydminster from 1997 until his resignation in 2017. He served as Canada's Agriculture minister from 20 ...

, thus ending a long era of very low cost erosion and drought control measures throughout the prairies.

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