FARMS ADAPTED FOR THE FUTURE

What is Agriclimate?

Agriclimate is a project initiated by Quebec farm producers. Its aim is to improve participants’ understanding of how climate change will impact agriculture and help them implement the best solutions for dealing with it.

All regional federations of the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) work collaboratively to mobilize resources, share knowledge, and facilitate regional working groups with the participation of VIA Pôle d’expertise en services-conseils agricoles.

With help from several partners, Agriclimate has developed an on-farm climate change diagnosis that includes two major components: adapting to climate change and improving carbon balance. The latter includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and on-farm carbon sequestration.

The Agriclimate team analyzes and disseminates potential ways to reduce GHG emissions and promote carbon sequestration for the main agricultural production types in Quebec.

A vast network of farmers, advisors, specialists, and researchers helps build on the work of the Agriclimate team and foster knowledge sharing within Quebec’s agricultural world.

PILOT FARM NETWORK

A group of 38 farms representing diverse production types worked with Agriclimate to develop the on-farm climate change diagnosis. Each farm receives guidance from an agri-environmental advisor who is a member of VIA Pôle d’expertise en services-conseils agricoles and has been trained by Agriclimate.

Thanks to a partnership between Agriclimate and Ouranos, pilot farms can access the latest information on agroclimatic indicators specific to their area. They use this information to determine the threats and challenges involved in adapting to the future climate. The producer and the advisor work together to establish potential solutions to protect against risks.

The carbon balance for each business is established using a tool developed by Agriclimate and its scientific collaborators. The tool takes into account not just the standards of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, but also the current scientific literature that applies to Quebec. The diagnosis allows producers to become familiar with the different GHG emissions sources on their farms, understand how intense the emissions are, and examine possible solutions for reducing them with the support of their advisor and the Agriclimate team.

At the end of the diagnostic process, each pilot farm develops a climate change mitigation plan to adapt to the future climate and improve its carbon balance. The producer, the advisor and Agriclimate all contribute knowledge that is put to use in the diagnosis.

AGRICLIMATE WORKS WITH AGRISOLUTIONS CLIMAT

Through its partnership with the UPA, the Agriclimate team shares its expertise with Agrisolutions climat, a large-scale process.

The climate change component of Agrisolutions climat gives producers and advisors an opportunity to further their knowledge and skills with respect to climate change mitigation, specifically in the following:

  • Giving 100 businesses the opportunity to participate in the Agriclimat diagnostic process
  • Promoting the adoption of on-farm climate change mitigation practices
  • Raising the profile of the businesses engaged in climate change mitigation efforts by developing the climate change caravan
  • Assembling a cohort of climate change mitigation advisors

All diagnoses prepared through Agrisolutions climat are overseen by the Agriclimate team and conducted in close collaboration with Agriclimate-trained advisors.

The Approach

All activities of Agriclimate are conducted collaboratively. Farmers, advisors, specialists, and researchers play a part in knowledge sharing and analysis to give Quebec farms the tools they need to fight climate change.

The Agriclimate Diagnosis

Agriclimate has developed a farm-level climate change mitigation diagnosis. It enables farms to identify actions that foster climate change adaptation and improve their carbon balance.

The Agriclimate project (“Farms adapted for the future”) receives financial support from the government of Quebec under its Action-Climat Québec program and serves the objectives of the 2030 Plan for a Green Economy.

Our Partners

Union des producturs agricoles - UPA
Regroupement des organismes de bassins versants du Québec - ROBVQ
Regroupement des organismes de bassins versants du Québec - ROBVQ

Contact
Sarah Delisle, agr.
Climate Change Project Coordinator
info@cdaq.qc.ca
450 679-0540, ext 8754