Sherbrooke, Québec – The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, launched a call for proposals for the On-Farm Climate Action Fund, a new fund under Agricultural Climate Solutions. Starting this year and until 2024, the $200-million Fund will provide direct support to farmers to adopt beneficial management practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in three target areas: cover cropping, nitrogen management, and rotational grazing practices. These three on-farm actions not only reduce GHG emissions but also offer farmers a cost-effective solution to improve soil health and achieve other environmental benefits.
This year has demonstrated the extraordinary challenges farmers face on the front lines of climate change. Extreme weather events, like this year’s drought, and other environmental impacts like challenges related to water availability and quality, soil health and biodiversity are projected to become more severe and costly for the sector in the coming decades. Farmers are already innovating and adopting more sustainable practices and technologies to improve their climate resiliency.
The Fund will follow an outcome-based approach in order to maximize new GHG emissions reductions. Activities supported through the Fund are expected to reduce GHG emissions by up to 2 million tonnes by 2024, and by 1 million tonnes per year ongoing, compared to current projections, and bring a total of 792,000 hectares of land under improved management practices.
Starting today, the On-Farm Climate Action Fund is seeking proposals from potential delivery partners to redistribute the funds to farmers undertaking eligible activities. Potential delivery partners for the On-Farm Climate Action Fund could include producer groups and associations, commodity organizations, Indigenous groups, non-governmental organizations, and provincial or territorial Crown corporations, among others.
Source : Government of Canada