Funding programs support sustainable ag efforts

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This article was published 29/04/2023 (949 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Environmentally conscious farmers have two new sources of funds to support their efforts thanks to programs introduced by the provincial and federal governments.

Farmers deserve help with achieving their environmental goals while also reaching their business objectives, Manitoba Agriculture Minister Derek Johnson said in a press release Friday.

Johnson was joined by federal Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau in Dauphin on Friday where the two announced the Resilient Agriculture Landscape Program (RALP) and the Sustainable Agriculture Manitoba (SAM) program. Both are part of the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership between Manitoba and Canada, announced on April 6.

“These two new funding opportunities build on our previous investments and enable farmers to grow their businesses while enhancing the sustainability and growth of the sector overall,” Johnson said.

The RALP program is cost-shared between provinces and the federal government aimed at ecological goods and services provided by the agriculture sector, such as maintaining and restoring grasslands and wetlands on farmlands.

Practices eligible for funding include ones that sequester carbon and improve sustainability and productivity through grassland management and agroforestry practices — land-use systems and technologies where trees and shrubs are used on the same land as agricultural crops.

Eligible applicants for RALP also include community pastures, agricultural Crown land forage leaseholders, Indigenous farmers and communities, and producers outside of watershed district boundaries. Watershed districts are also eligible for funding under RALP’s Watershed Resilience programming, which will see districts collaborating with farmers for projects on agricultural land. At the time of printing, no further details about the RALP program were available.

Neil Zalluski, manager of the Central Assiniboine Watershed District, said he hopes more farmers will work with their local watershed districts going forward after the announcement of RALP’s Watershed Resilience programming.

“Phone your local watershed district, pitch your project, and we’ll see if it fits,” Zalluski told the Sun.

Under the SAM program, funding will be provided to farmers and land managers to help implement cost-shared management practices with a focus on environmental and economic sustainability. Climate change adaptation and mitigation, air quality, water quality and quantity, soil health and biodiversity are four priority areas for this funding. Beneficial management practices will be eligible for cost-shared funding in categories such as cropland management, manure and livestock management and water management.

Jill Verwey, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers — Manitoba’s farm policy organization — said benefits of the new funding streams will be felt all around.

“This program will provide millions of dollars for the overall agri-food value chain, which will have positive effects for all farmers,” she said.

Investments in market development for processors will also result in more market opportunities for farmers, and capital improvements to processing facilities will allow processors to streamline and increase production, providing a more efficient overall value chain for farmers, Verwey said.

While producers should be optimistic about the newly announced programs, there are a lot of questions still to be answered surrounding how they will be rolled out and what they’ll look like in practice, president of Manitoba Beef Producers Matthew Atkinson said. The group will be meeting with the province to discuss the new programs and other agriculture initiatives in the near future.

The deadline to apply for funding through the RALP stream is June 12, and the deadline to apply for SAM beneficial management practices funding is June 13.

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