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Program Description
The GHG Mitigation Program will initiate the long-term process of reducing
net GHG emissions by addressing each of the three farm management areas of
soil, nutrient and livestock management through elements that are common
to all three: recommendations, awareness, and measuring and verification.
The interrelationships are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Implementation Process
The GHG Mitigation Program includes the following activities for
Recommendation of Best Management Practices, Awareness, and Measuring and
Verification.
a) Recommendations - Best Management Practices
The program will identify best management practices (BMPs) that address
GHG emissions. These will be packaged into ‘suites’ of BMPs to address
on-farm GHG emission reduction and enhance carbon sequestration through
improvements to soil, nutrient and livestock management practices. The
suites will be comprised of a variety of BMPs for regional outreach and
demonstration, to encourage participation by producers across Canada. The
program is aimed at encouraging producers to adopt BMPs that reduce GHG
emissions and that also have economic benefits. For example, by improving
fertilizer-application practices, producers can lower production costs
while reducing GHG emissions.
To identify the suites of BMPs, a ‘Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Advisory
Committee’ has been created. It helps in the development of best
management practices for reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon
sinks. It also provides guidance for the program delivery. The Advisory
Committee membership includes research, producer, federal and provincial
government, academic and industry expertise.
The Advisory Committee is supported by a Scientific Working Group which
will carry out the technical review of BMPs and submitted proposals,
verify results, and assemble BMPs into suites for the Advisory Committee's
approval. The Scientific Working Group is comprised of four to five
scientists from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) with a broader
reference group of experts.
National industry groups in the areas of livestock, nutrients and soils
are responsible for making producers aware of the GHG mitigation practices
through demonstration and communications activities. More specifically,
AAFC is working with the Canadian Cattlemen's Association, the Canadian
Pork Council, the Dairy Farmers' of Canada and the Soil Conservation
Council of Canada on delivery of the awareness component of the program.
b) Awareness - Demonstrations and Communications
The GHG Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture will raise awareness
among producers of the environmental importance and economic benefits of
adopting BMPs through demonstrations and various communications and
training vehicles. Adoption of the recommended practices is at the core of
the GHG Mitigation Program for Canadian Agriculture. Adoption by producers
will occur through their awareness of the BMPs and their opportunities to
implement them.
For example, producers will be informed through demonstrations and
communications activities of the economic benefits of adopting BMPs. These
benefits could include:
- improved nutrient-use efficiency (fertilizer, manure), leading to
lower crop production costs;
- improved soil quality (from increased soil organic matter and
reduced erosion), leading to higher and more stable yields because of
improved fertility and water holding capacity;
- improved efficiency of feed conversion (meat, milk, eggs), leading
to lower costs of production;
- improved air quality around livestock operations (decreased odours);
increased value of manure (composting, nutrient content), making it more
desirable as a source of plant nutrients; and
- potential for eligibility for future carbon trading opportunities,
leading to possible future financial rewards from selling carbon and GHG
emission reductions credits to energy and manufacturing corporations.
The industry groups will be responsible for demonstration sites, such as
farms run by innovative farmers who are using best management practices.
They will ensure that the demonstration sites are shown to other producers
through on-farm demonstrations and various communications and training
vehicles. The communications activities could include workshops,
information sessions, newsletter inserts, booths at agricultural shows,
training sessions, and so on.
The industry groups will develop delivery approaches that the Advisory
Committee will review. The Advisory Committee and the Scientific Working
Group will provide technical reviews of proposals for decision by the
industry groups. The review will focus on scientific integrity,
applicability, appropriateness and expert advice.
A web site will be developed that will provide an alternate means of
communication. This web site will be linked with related agri-environmental
and climate-change-related web sites which house information on Canadian
climate change programs (for example, Manure Net, and the Climate Change
Secretariat's database of climate change initiatives).
c) Measuring and Verification
Quantifying the impact of management practices to reduce GHG emissions as
a function of climate and soil conditions is an essential component of the
GHG Mitigation Program. This measuring and verification component is
linked with the Model Farm Program, a separate program under the Action
Plan 2000 on Climate Change. The Model Farm Program is developing computer
models that will be used to estimate the net GHG emissions from commercial
farms based on management, soil and climatic conditions. The outputs from
many model farm scenarios, each representing different farming systems,
will be used to estimate net emissions from entire regions.
The Model Farm Program supports teams of scientists across the country who
measure GHG emissions as a function of soil, crop, and livestock
management practices on Canadian farms, including the demonstration sites
under the GHG Mitigation Program. These scientists will use a wide range
of measuring tools to quantify GHG emissions in a range of farming systems
across the country. The measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes will be used
to develop a composite model that can then estimate net emissions from
whole farms. The reliability of this composite model (‘Model Farm’) will
be evaluated by further measurements at representative farms and research
sites in diverse regions. Once developed and shown to be reliable, this
composite model can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a suite of
mitigation practices on GHG emissions from Canadian farms.
The Scientific Working Group will be responsible for verification
activities under the GHG Mitigation Program, including developing
methodologies and criteria to measure changes in GHG emissions resulting
from implementing BMPs. The Working Group will visit demonstration sites
to perform scientific measurements, which will be used for verifying the
effectiveness of the BMPs being used.
d) Feedback
The Scientific Working Group completes the feedback loop by using the
measuring and verification information to provide recommendations on BMPs
for approval of the GHG Mitigation Advisory Committee. The committee then
advises the national industry groups delivering the communications and
demonstration activities.
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