At a special ceremony held at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City on August 15, Pierre Jutras, agr., ing., CSAE/SCGR Society Manager, along with two other Quebec agriculturists, were inducted into the Quebec Agricultural Hall of Fame.
Most provinces across Canada have their Agricultural Hall of Fame, and so does Canada. The Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame Association as well as the provincial agricultural counterparts exist to honour and celebrate Canadians for outstanding contributions to the betterment of the Agriculture and Food industry and to rural living and to publicize the importance of their achievements.
Generally speaking, people who have demonstrated leadership in the farm, rural or commodity organizations, or in the food industry, are eligible for admission to a hall of fame. This leadership must have been demonstrated at the provincial, national, or international level, and must have benefited the province or Canada in a significant way. Groups of individuals or organizations can make or support nominations.
Pierre graduated from McGill B.Sc.(Agr.) ’51 and from the University of Maine M.Sc.(Ag.Eng.) ’57. After doing full-time research in mechanization at the University of Florida Citrus Research Station for a number of years, he returned to Canada to contribute to agricultural soil improvement through sub-surface drainage. While on staff at Laval University in the middle 60’s, he carried out a study to determine the extent of agricultural drainage needs in Quebec with student assistants. Realizing that most of the needs were in the Montreal lowlands, he moved to Macdonald College of McGill University where he created the Agricultural Engineering Consulting Service and with the cooperation of Prof. Robert Broughton, started laying the foundation for what was to become a comprehensive soil drainage industry. This necessitated the creation of a competent group of drainage contractors, training of private and government technicians, construction and operation of drainage tile manufacturing plants, soliciting politicians and civil servants for subsidies to farmers, quality control over drainage materials and drainage installations, importation and construction of drainage machines and laser grade-control systems, etc. Pierre left McGill from 1970 to 1977 to help bring about these infrastructures. Much of this activity resulted in changing the face of Quebec agriculture from a region of dairy surpluses and high imports of feeds and other agricultural products, to one of greater food self-sufficiency and exportation of grain and meat products around the world.
The growth in animal production, however, created a problem of manure surpluses on cropland, and he returned to Macdonald in 1977 to address this challenging problem which still lingers on today.
In 1983, he began an end-of-career phase of development work in Africa and Asia, and in year 2000, took over the responsibility of CSAE/SCGR Society Manager, position which he still holds today.
Pierre served 3 years as Chairman of the Canada Committee on Agricultural Engineering Services, 2 years as CSAE/SCGR Regional Director and recently received a Certificate of Merit as Volunteer of the year in the Municipality of Potton where he resides in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. He recently served 4 years as municipal councillor.