WATCH (above): Where there used to be fields – now you see lakes with crops submerged in water. Reporter Brian Coxford spoke to one producer who says his losses are already in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Many farmers in the Lower Mainland are surveying the damage from the recent heavy rains. In some cases, where there used to be fields, there are submerged crops which look more like lakes.
While there is still hope for the season with sunshine in the upcoming forecast, Global News spoke to one vegetable farmer south of Cloverdale in Surrey, who says the torrential rain has wiped out his early crop and his losses are already more than $200,000.
Sam Chiang from the Wah Shang Farm has been farming for more than 20 years and says this is his worst year. Chiang’s lettuce fields were under a half a metre of water and drowned.
Due to the rain, he will lose 15 acres of crops and although the rain water has drained off, the fields are so muddy seedlings cannot be planted.
On the evening of May 4, a large rain cloud hung over the Cloverdale area for a few hours with farms around it getting normal amounts of rain. But there were 30 to 40 farms in the middle of the monsoon that are taking a hit.
Chiang has 15 acres of crops, which is worth about $200,000 to $300,000, that he’s going to lose.
Further up the road from Wah Shang Farm, a farmer spent two weeks planting 40 acres of potatoes, which the storm completely washed away.
For vegetable farmers that were hit by the heavy rainfall, this means having to start over, which in turn will make the crops late.
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