PEI AGRICULTURE

Prince Edward Island, known as the "Million Acre Farm", has a land area of 575,000
 hectares. P.E.I. is located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 15km from the New Brunswick 
coast and is about 24 km from the north shore of Nova Scotia. 

The climate is characterized as mean temperature in January at -7.6c and July mean temperature 
of 18.8c.  Annual precipitation ranges from 900-1000 mm, of which 180-250mm is the water 
equivalent of snowfall. Precipitation is evenly distributed over the year. We have 100-160
 frost-free days per year, depending on microclimate. The growing season extends from early 
May to mid-October.

There are approximately 2200 farms on the Island with the total farming acreage about 265,000 
hectares. Total gross value of agriculture production is around $350 million.

Potato and livestock farming are the primary agriculture sectors. After potatoes, forages and cereals
are the highest production crops. The average hectarage of potatoes has
 been 45,000 hectares for the past few years, with seed, table stock and processing 
(french fries) being the end use. The bulk of the acreage goes for processing to the 
two large processing plants on the Island. Main varieties grown are Russet Burbank and Shepody. 

(Statistics obtained from PEIDAF)