| | Key Points
- Evolution of the Public Image of Agriculture
- Reporting of Bad News & Good News About Agriculture
- Production Agriculture’s Response & How Governments Have Helped
- Technical Assistance Component of Greencover - A Good News Story
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Agriculture’s public image had been waning in the wake of the general public’s heightened interest about environmental issues, prior to Walkerton, but the Walkerton incident had a very significant negative impact on the public’s image of agriculture in Canada – even though the agriculture was not at fault, the source of contamination did come from a farm!
Although we weren’t prepared for the back lash, production agriculture has responded quickly and positively to the criticism, with the help of both industry and government led initiatives.
One of the government initiatives that helped address the issue was the Technical Assistance of Component of the Greencover Program. The Greencover program itself was a five year Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada program that provided funding under various components in each province. The purpose of the Greencover Technical Assistance Component was to provide financial support for technical transfer activities that were aimed at accelerating the adoption of beneficial management practices (BMPs) for the sustainable use and, management of pasture, hayland, riparian areas and shelterbelts.
In Alberta financial support was available, using a proposal based set of guidelines, to provincial government agencies and non-government organizations that were active in the following priorities: Native Rangeland Management; Tame Forage Management; Agro-Forestry Management; Riparian Stewardship.
Greencover program ends in March 2008, and the $2 million allocated under the Technical Assistance Component in Alberta has all been allocated! During the course of the program operation in Alberta over the last five years, forty individual, NGO, and government entities had 83 projects approved totaling $1,980,560.00.
With the Greencover program coming to an end. The committee which reviewed and approved the Alberta Technical Assistance Component proposals felt that an event should be held to showcase and help celebrate the successes achieved by the entities that had accessed money from Greencover for their projects.
We would like to thank the organizers of the “Capturing Feed Grain& Forage Opportunities Conference” for providing a venue for this showcase to occur. Accordingly there are twenty four posters on display at the conference which highlight the activities and successes of Greencover funded projects and there will be 15 presentations describing additional Greencover funded projects, during the Concurrent Best Management Practices session of the conference.
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Conclusion
The Technical Assistance Component of Greencover in Alberta is a success story:
- It provided a basis to help bring producers, producer organizations, land and water resource management interested organizations, reseachers, and extension staff together to help identify, develop and promote the use of Beneficial Management Practices in the areas of: Native Rangeland Management; Tame Forage Management; Agro-Forestry Management; and Riparian Stewardship; across Alberta.
- Essentially all of the funding originally allocated for use in Alberta through this Component was used for projects that were undertaken across the province.
We would like thank all of entities who participated in this program component for their originality and initiative, and we would particularly like to thank those entities who took the time and effort to participate in helping showcase their successes at this conference.
One final acknowledgment and thank you goes to the other members of the of the Review Committee who provided their knowledge and expertise to individually review proposals to this program component, and who then met as a group to select the projects that most appropriately met the goals of the program.
They were:
- Fiona Briody, Committee Chair, AgLand & AgForestry Manager, PFRA/AACF
- Dale Chrapko, Provincial Program Manager, Alberta Agriculture & Food
- Barry Adams, Range Management Specialist , Alberta Sustainable Resource
- Development
- Duane McCartney, Research Scientist, AAFC
Green Cover Best Management Practices: Agro-Forestry
Green Cover Best Management Practices: Biodiversity
Green Cover Best Management Practices: Range & Forage
Green Cover Best Management Practices: Riparian
Don McLennan
PFRA/AAFC
#210 – 1865 Dunmore Rd. SE, Medicine Hat, AB T1A 1Z8 |
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