Competition likely to suppress pulse acres in Canada

Pulse acres will drop in 2022 despite sky-high fertilizer costs, according to one of Canada’s leading analysts. Stat Publishing is forecasting 4.06 million acres of lentils, a six percent decline from this year and 3.74 million acres of peas, down two percent. Stat editor Brian Clancey can’t justify penciling in an increase in plantings of either crop given the prices of competing crops. “Look at canola right now. Today you can get over $1,000 per tonne for canola. I think that’s unprecedented,” he said. “Explain to me why someone would not want to seed canola.” It is a similar story for oats and durum. There are a limited number of arable acres in Western Canada and if farmers increase plantings of those crops they have to reduce acreage of others. Rather than planting more pulses to cut back on fertilizer costs he thinks farmers may use the reserve nitrogen in fields that were seeded to pulses last year to grow canola and other high value crops. Stat believes red lentil area ...