In collaboration with our sector stakeholders, BC Agriculture Council and the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC are teaming up to develop a joint application for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Agricultural Climate Solutions Program (ACS). ACS supports the integration of scientific research and farming operations, with the goal of increasing the adoption of effective practices and technologies that help farmers contribute to climate change mitigation and improve the natural environment. Our approach is to build off existing programs and resources from within our community and make an application that will truly benefit BC farmers and ranchers. Beyond this application, the goal is to ensure farms remain competitive and that our water, air, and soil are sustainable for generations to come. To date, we have been actively working with several key stakeholder groups such as the Climate and Agriculture Initiative (CAI), producers, farm associations, scientists, research groups and other sectoral stakeholders.
Keeping with the ACS objectives, our application will focus on agricultural commodities and regions of the province that have potential to contribute to Canada’s carbon sequestration and GHG emission targets and have demonstrated interest in field-based, farmer-led research. The preliminary application submission date is mid-June. While time is limited, we intend to share the draft with potential industry and government partners for review in the coming weeks. This will then allow us to work directly with industry, the research community, and other partners – from August to December 2021 – on the development of a full proposal for funding under the Program. We look forward to engaging with interested parties and hearing their feedback on our draft.
