| | The newest program on Alberta’s agro-environmental scene is the five-year Canada-Alberta Farm Stewardship Program. This federal-provincial-industry partnership provides technical and financial assistance to help Alberta producers implement environmentally sound practices. It has been designed from the start to complement and build on other programs.
The program is funded under the Agricultural Policy Framework, an agreement between the federal, provincial and territorial governments to work towards common goals for Canada’s agricultural industry in five key areas, one of which is the environment.
The three partner agencies in the Farm Stewardship Program are: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development; and The Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company (see “Partnering for Change”). Over the five years, the federal government is contributing $51.15 million for developing and implementing environmental farm plans in Alberta, and the Alberta government is providing $32.55 million of in-kind contributions.
“The Environmental Farm Plan program will be the entry point to the Farm Stewardship Program,” explains Carol Bettac of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada/Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA). “Producers who have completed an environmental farm plan that’s been reviewed and deemed appropriate by a committee of experienced producers will receive an application for the Stewardship Program from The Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company.” Both programs are entirely voluntary, and a producer can choose to withdraw from the process before completing a plan or having it reviewed.
The Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) process provides a good starting place for making changes. “The [EFP] worksheets provide a comprehensive, objective way to assess a farm operation... And the workshops give producers the opportunity to share perspectives with each other and spark new ideas,” says John Tackaberry of Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.
The Farm Stewardship Program’s goal is to enhance water, soil and air quality, and biodiversity. Targets have been set in each of these areas. Physical changes, such as organic matter content in soil and nitrate content in water, will be assessed to measure progress toward the targets over the five years.
“Five years is a very short time to first bring about changes in practices and then begin to see the effects of those changes on the environment,” says Tackaberry. “This is a very ambitious program, but it’s the right thing to do. If we don’t have improvements on the landscape, then we really haven’t achieved the objectives.”
The Farm Stewardship Program will contribute from 30 to 50% of the cost per project, to a maximum of $30,000 per farm over the five years. The cost-sharing ratio depends on the ratio of public benefit to producer benefit from the specific practice. The producer’s contribution can be in various forms such as cash, materials, labour, and/or equipment use.
A total of 26 practices are eligible for program funding. A team of federal and provincial technical staff, with input from Alberta producers, selected those 26 practices as the ones that would give the greatest benefits for the tax dollars invested. “For each practice, there is a PFRA specialist who will be the point of contact for farmers, so farmers won’t be going all over the place trying to get information,” notes Bettac.
Tackaberry says the program’s financial incentives should help speed up implementation of farm plans, especially given the financial stresses for producers in the last three years due to drought, the BSE crisis and low commodity prices.
Bettac adds that technical assistance is also vital, whether it’s through the Farm Stewardship Program or other complementary programs, like the local programs funded through AESA’s Farm Based Program (see “Locally Based, Targeted Programming”).
She says, “Adopting a different production system often requires time and effort to learn about that system. For example, changing to a sustainable grazing system is about having someone help the producer learn about what specific practices mean in terms of how the community of plants in his own pasture respond, and how the other elements of his pasture’s ecology respond. Ultimately it’s gaining specific understanding that allows a producer to change practices.”
The program’s three partner agencies will be working with other agricultural and environmental agencies toward shared environmental goals. Bettac says, “Our aim is to bring all the different efforts together in an ‘environmental program value chain’ so they are all linked and driving toward the goal of implementing environmentally sound practices.” Tackaberry adds that the most important players are Alberta’s farmers and ranchers: “They are the ones controlling the resources on their own farms, and collectively how they do that will determine how the environment will be influenced.” |
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