The Manitoba government’s climate change plan has laid out some new priorities for agriculture in the province including a promise to partner with Keystone Agricultural Producers and the National Farmers Union.
The goals include:
- Building resiliency by expanding the focus of Environmental Farm Plan-related programming from assessment of agri-environmental risks towards building resiliency against adverse weather effects on farms.
- Sustaining growth through a new Climate Friendly Agricultural Practices Program to provide incentives for beneficial management practices, support advanced and applied research, and enable technology transfer.
- Improving soil stewardship.
- Promoting perennial crops through research partnerships with the University of Manitoba and the Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association.
- Promoting soybeans and pulse crops to reduce consumption of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and the resulting nitrous oxide emissions.
- Support research.
- Nurturing organic farming: Comparisons of organic and conventional grain cropping consistently show lower energy use and GHG emissions for organic grain production.
- Enhancing rural infrastructure such as expansion of high-speed Internet and cell service to allow rural Manitobans to do business at or closer to home.
- Expanding bioproducts that displace consumption of fossil fuels.
- Increasing support to local food production with particular emphasis on indigenous communities and on encouraging small-scale farming.
Read Also
October rain recharges Manitoba soils
Daniel Bezte looks back on October weather on the Prairies and looks ahead to see whether there’s any consensus for this winter’s weather.
