Saskatchewan, July 13, 2025 – The Europe Today: Farmers across southwestern Saskatchewan are facing devastating crop losses as an extreme drought, now entering its ninth consecutive year, continues to scorch the region, forcing several rural municipalities to declare states of emergency.
In the Rural Municipality (RM) of Big Stick, veteran grain farmer and Reeve Quinton Jacksteit reported just half an inch of rain for the entire month — a dire statistic that paints a bleak picture of the season. “It’s depressing to go out into the hot, hot, windy days and then watch your crops deteriorate,” Jacksteit said. “There’s really not a lot of optimism.”
Jacksteit’s municipality is joined by Maple Creek, Fox Valley, Enterprise, and Waverley, all of which have formally declared drought emergencies. The Canadian Drought Monitor, Canada’s official authority on drought conditions, now ranks portions of the region under extreme drought, the second-most severe classification in its five-tier scale. This level of drought is typically seen only once every 20 years.
According to the latest national drought report, the region received less than 25% of normal rainfall last month. The drought scale jumped by three levels in some zones, a dramatic and alarming shift that underscores the speed and intensity of the crisis.
“If we don’t get any kind of substantial moisture before seeding next year, I’m not sure what we’re going to do,” Jacksteit warned, echoing growing concerns about the sustainability of farming in the region.
Kelly Bakanec, Reeve of the neighbouring RM of Fox Valley, described the despair shared by many farmers. “I like to drive around and check crops every night. And every day, the crop is going backwards,” said Bakanec, whose family has farmed the same land since 1912. “If we don’t get any rain in the next week or two, it’s just going to burn up to nothing. We probably won’t even take the combines out.”
As climate volatility escalates, communities in southwest Saskatchewan are bracing for further hardship, hoping for rain — and for relief — before irreversible damage seals the fate of this year’s harvest.
