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
Farm sustainability means farmer wellness too
University of Manitoba LEAP program wants to talk farm succession, self-efficacy and community supports as part of agriculture wellness and sustainability study.
