Koksilah Soil Moisture Metering - 000519

VGN Resources Group Inc. (VGN) will be the Program Administrator for projects under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food's (Ministry) extension programming for environment and climate change.  This RFP and project is administered by VGN on behalf of the Ministry. 

The Xwulqw'selu/Koksilah Watershed in the Cowichan Valley has experienced increasing frequency of drought and water scarcity in recent years leading to reductions in agricultural water supply. Producers in the Koksilah watershed have been subject to Temporary Protection Orders (TPOs) and irrigation curtailments for the past 4 years. In the summer of 2023 forage producers (with surface water licenses in the watershed) were curtailed for over one month resulting in economic losses to the sector. For these past 5 years, a select group of farmers have been engaged in irrigation scheduling activities in an attempt to delay the initiation of TPOs in this region. The impact has been reduced productivity for farms and a need to identify and implement opportunities to improve crop water use efficiency. There is limited region-specific information to support this decision-making, and this project will seek to provide answers to the question: “how much should I irrigate, and where should I irrigate?”.

To achieve this, the project will build on work completed in 2025 by Hilldown Ag Services and Peak HydroMet Solutions that installed soil moisture sensors on three farms in the Xwulqw'selu/Koksilah Watershed. This project will expand the scope of soil moisture monitoring to include more farms.

A component of this project will include a continuation of support for irrigation scheduling in the Koksilah region until direction has been confirmed through the Xwulqw'selu/Koksilah Watershed and Water Sustainability Plan process.