Feds Pledge $200M to Help Farmers Cut Emissions, Boost Resilience

Canada’s ministry of agriculture and agri-food has announced a three-year, C$200 million On-Farm Climate Action Fund to help farmers adopt climate-friendly management practices.

“With today`s announcement, our government is helping farmers to be more resilient to changes in climate and to contribute to reducing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change,” said Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.

The fund was originally announced in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s April budget, initially as a two-year, $200-million commitment.

Recent effects of climate change have devastated farms across the country. From now until 2024, the fund will provide direct support to farmers adopting management practices that store carbon and reduce agricultural emissions, such as cover cropping, nitrogen management, and rotational grazing practices, with payments administered on an outcomes-based approach. Farmers who participate in the fund will not be excluded from the developing national carbon offset program, despite potential overlap between the two initiatives, reports Real Agriculture.

“Activities supported through the Fund are expected to reduce GHG emissions by up to two million tonnes by 2024, and by one million tonnes per year ongoing, compared to current projections, and bring a total of 792,000 hectares of land under improved management practices,” writes Lacombe Online.

In its backgrounder on the fund, Agriculture and Agri-Food announced that the fund “will address barriers to wider adoption, including up-front implementation costs, lack of risk protection, minimal or delayed returns on investment, and limited availability of information and agronomic services.” Eligible applicants, which include “producer groups and associations, commodity organizations, Indigenous groups, non-governmental organizations, and provincial or territorial Crown corporations, among others,” can apply until September 26, 2021.