Nature Based Climate Solutions Advisory Committee priority question #3 – advancing climate-focused Beneficial Management Practices in agricultural areas

Issue

How can the Natural Climate Solutions Fund (NCSF) better advance the adoption of climate-focused Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) in agricultural areas and ensure that value is attached to BMPs that increase soil carbon and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? What are the barriers to adoption and how can we mitigate them?

Background

• BMPs are actions that reduce environmental risk, address environmental issues, and produce ecological benefits. Many BMPs implemented on agricultural lands are nature-based solutions that can mitigate the negative impacts of climate change, often providing co-benefits such as increasing biodiversity and optimizing soil health. Some examples of agricultural BMPs include:
• Shelterbelts: planting rows of trees or shrubs in agricultural fields to provide shelter from wind. Increase carbon sequestration, reduce soil erosion and support biodiversity.
• Cover cropping: growing particular crops in late summer-fall before, with, or after growing a main crop (i.e. cash crop), or on fallow land. Increases carbon sequestration, prevents soil erosion, and reduces nutrient loss.
• Rotational grazing: moving livestock across different pastures, allowing portions of pasture to rest and re-grow. Reduces GHG emissions, soil erosion, and supports biodiversity.
• Reduced tillage: minimizing disturbance to agricultural soils through less intense methods of tillage, reduced frequency or avoiding tillage altogether. Increases soil carbon sequestration and soil biodiversity, and reduces soil erosion.
• Wetland and grassland restoration or protection: including avoiding conversion of grasslands and wetlands to other land uses. Increases carbon sequestration and biodiversity. 

Considerations

All three programs under the NCSF can play a role in supporting the adoption of BMPs on agricultural lands:

• Agricultural Climate Solutions (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) – co-developing and implementing on-farm BMPs which adapt BMPs to local conditions and promote peer-to-peer learning;
• Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund (Environment and Climate Change Canada) – grassland and wetland restoration and conservation which support BMP implementation costs; and
• 2 Billion Trees (Natural Resources Canada) – planting trees on agricultural lands which supports BMP implementation costs.
• Producers make decisions based on a wide range of economic, social, and environmental factors and continually weigh the risk of adopting new practices against potential impacts on yields and profits from their production. For BMPs to be adopted voluntarily, producers must see clear value in them.
• Barriers and risks often translate into producer preference for activities that provide a short-term cost/benefit with quick results, are easy to adopt, have a low risk to production, and are compatible with existing production systems.
• Specific barriers to adoption vary by BMP, and could include economic pressures, need for farm machinery investments, time limitations, feasibility of implementation due to climate, soil type, or farm structure, insufficient knowledge and skills, and resistance to change.
• Environmental benefits and their longer-term positive productivity impacts are not always easy to measure and communicate to producers.
• “Early adopters”, producers already implementing certain BMPs on their farms, could play a key role in influencing other producers to adopt BMPs.

Related link

• Nature Based Climate Solutions Advisory Committee