Agriculture Products
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Barley
Barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) is a major cereal grain. Important uses include use as animal feed, as ...
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Beef
PEI Beef has been receiving rave reviews from top chefs and butchers in Canada. Beef refers to meat ...
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Blueberries
Lowbush blueberry fruit is rich in antioxidant compounds that fight free radicals that are associate...
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Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea (Capitata Group) of the family Brassi...
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Canola
There are two types of canola grown in PEI, Brassica napus and Brassica campestris. Canola seeds are...
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Carrots
Carrots (Daucus carota) are a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, a...
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Onions
Onions (Allium cepa), also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, are normally avai...
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Parsnips
Parsnips (Pastinaca sativa) are a root vegetable related to the carrot. Parsnips resemble carrots, b...
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Potatoes
PEI is well known for Potato Production and annually produces around 25 million hundredweight (cwt) ...
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Rutabaga
Rutabagas (Brassica napus Napobrassica group) are closely related to cole crops. Both white and yell...
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Soybeans
The soybean (Glycine max) is a species of legume which has numerous uses. PEI farmers grow food gra...
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Turnip
Turnips (Brassica rapa Rapifera group) are closely related to Chinese cabbage and mustards. It is a ...
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Wheat
Wheat (Triticum spp.) is a cereal grain that is the most important staple food for humans. There ar...
SIZE
Prince Edward Island is a great place to farm. The Island has a total land area of 1.4 million acres with approximately 620,000 acres cleared for agricultural use.
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Agriculture is very important to the rural way of life on P.E.I. with 3.9 percent of the population living on farms; 1.7 percent higher than the national average. The 2011 census listed 1,495 farms primarily engaged in growing crops and raising livestock on P.E.I. These farms range in size from a few acres to 3,000 acres.
HISTORY
Agriculture is one of the Island’s primary resources and has been for many years. The early Mi’Kmaq people who were native to the Island were hunters and gatherers, and it was the French who brought farming with them when they settled in the first few decades of the 1700s.
CURRENT CONDITION
The principal crop in PEI is potatoes with approximately 85,000 acres being planted annually. Prince Edward Island potatoes are grown for the fresh table market, for seed potatoes and for processing into frozen potato products and chips.
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The potatoes are sold nationally and internationally.In the past Grains and Oilseeds were primarily grown in rotation with potato crops, with the recent increase in price for grains and oilseeds these crops are increasingly being grown for specific markets. Wheat, grain corn, oats, barley, soybeans and mixed grain are all planted on the Island. The total value of the 2010 grain and oilseed crop was estimated to be $14.9 million.Fruit production is very diverse on Prince Edward Island. Wild blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, apples and other specialty fruits including raspberry, gooseberry, rose hips, black currant, grapes, high bush blueberry and the haskap berry are all grown on PEI.Beef production is a part of 35 percent of Prince Edward Island farms. PEI Beef is highly sought after with many of the country’s top chefs and butchers featuring it in their restaurants and shops.Vegetables are an important cash crop for many Island farmers. Cauliflower, carrots, brussel sprouts, rutabaga, carrots, onions and cabbage are sold to local, national and international markets.There are approximately 200 dairy farms on Prince Edward Island supplying the domestic market with milk and other dairy products. Breeding stock and embryos are sold to dairy farms across Canada and internationally.There are approximately 25 farms on P.E.I. producing more than 80,000 hogs annually.Organic farming is continuing to expand across Prince Edward Island. There are approximately 55 certified producers in the province who produce crops and/or raise livestock.