Canada. Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration : The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was established in 1935 through an Act of Parliament, and administered the Act for Prairie Farm Rehabilitation. With offices located in Western Canada, the primary responsibility of the PFRA was in soil and water conservation, and the primary functions remained largely the same for much of the remainder of the 20th century. These functions were carrried out by the Land Use Service, which conducted common grazing development; and the Hydrological Development Service, which provided financial and technical assistance for individual or collective groups with respect to water conservation, storage and irrigation.
One of the notable and long-running PFRA programs was the Community Pasture Program, which was a land-management service provided on 85 pastures in the Prairie Provinces. It was created in the 1930s to reclaim land that was badly eroded during the Prairie drought. The mandate was to rehabilitate land affected by soil drifting and to develop and promote 'systems of farm practice, tree culture, water supply and land utilization' that would rehabilitate eroded fields and ultimately the economic security of farmers in the region. By 2012, it was operating 87 community pastures across the Prairies, with 62 pastures in Saskatchewan covering 1.78 million acres.
A notable sub-function of the PFRA was forest conservation. The department of Agriculture's Shelterbelt Centre was established at Indian Head, Sask., in 1901 to supply prairie hardy tree and shrub seedlings free to producers. Selection and limited distribution of hardy trees first began in the late 1800s at the Agriculture Experimental Station in Indian Head. To meet growing demand, the Department of Interior established the Forest Nursery Station, which shipped 106,000 trees to 92 settlers in its first year (1902). The program became more popular every year and by 1906, 2 million trees were being shipped.
During the severe drought of the 1930s, Shelterbelt Centre staff worked with the newly formed PFRA to plant field shelterbelts and demonstrate their use for soil conservation. In 1963, the Shelterbelt Centre at Indian Head Saskatchewan became part of PFRA.
Apart from a short period between 1969-1983, when the PFRA reported to the Department of Regional Economic Expansion (DREE), the PFRA operated from 1935 until 2009 as a distinct branch within the department of Agriculture, and later Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
In April 2009, the Agri-Environmental Services Branch was established with three organizational units. The branch integrated three existing components at AAFC: the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, the National Land and Water Information Service, and the Agricultural Environmental Policy Bureau.
With a new branch responsibility, and a new name, the mandate of the PFRA was broadened to a national scope, and with a focus on environmental stewardship, and the development and delivery of science-based agri-environmental knowledge and information tools. AESB functioned until 2012, when it was merged with the Research Branch.
