Million Acre Challenge aims to reduce the financial risk of adopting regenerative practices, with approximately 60 additional Ontario farms expected to participate.
Ontario farmers interested in adding regenerative practices to their operations will have another opportunity to receive financial and agronomic support in 2027.
Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-Food (CANZA) is expanding its Million Acre Challenge by 36,000 acres, with approximately 60 Ontario farms expected to participate in the next phase.
The expansion comes as farmers continue navigating rising production costs, changing weather patterns and uncertainty surrounding the economics of adopting different production practices.
The premise behind the Million Acre Challenge is that farmers shouldn't necessarily have to shoulder all the risk associated with testing practices that could ultimately provide benefits throughout the food supply chain.
Through the program, participating farmers receive cost-sharing assistance along with agronomic support as they introduce eligible practices.
Program information indicates farmers can receive $31 per enrolled acre in Year 1, $25 per acre in Year 2 and $12.50 per acre in Year 3, with 50 per cent of the annual payment provided before practice implementation. Enrolled acres remain in the program for three years.
Eligible farmers work with an Ontario-based Certified Crop Advisor, Professional Agrologist or another agronomic expert accepted by CANZA.
Reducing the Risk of Trying Something New
Changing an established production system can represent a significant financial decision for a farm.
Equipment may need to be purchased or modified, management practices can change and farmers may not know immediately how a new approach will affect yields, costs or profitability.
That uncertainty was a concern for Lexi Soudant, livestock manager at Dave Gardiner Farms in Kirkton, Ont., and a participant in the Million Acre Challenge.
“Putting a new practice into place can be quite the investment on a family farm,” Soudant said in the CANZA announcement. “It can cost a great deal of time and money and the setback, if it fails, can be quite damaging for a family farm such as ours.”
For the farm, participation helped reduce some of the uncertainty associated with trying no-till.
“Being part of the Million Acre Challenge changed the level of risk our farm felt in trying no-till,” Soudant said. “Working together with CANZA to collect helpful information was a big factor in helping to reduce the risk we felt here on our farm.”
Practices identified in CANZA program material include approaches such as reduced tillage, cover cropping and 4R Nutrient Stewardship.
First Farmers Enrolled More Than 15,000 Acres
The expansion follows the program's first year in Southwestern Ontario's corn belt.
According to CANZA, 32 farmers enrolled 15,105 acres across 175 fields, resulting in 82 new regenerative agriculture practices being implemented.
Participating farmers also worked with advisors and supplied farm-level information that can be used to better understand the environmental results associated with changes in management practices.
“The first group of farmers gave us something incredibly valuable – the chance to see how this model works on real farms and where we need to make it better,” said Ashley Honsberger, interim executive director of CANZA.
The second phase will increase access to agronomic advice and implementation support while improving data collection and reporting as measurement of carbon, water and biodiversity outcomes continues to evolve, according to the organization.
Finding Farm Programs Could Get Easier
The expansion isn't limited to acres.
CANZA also plans to build out its CANZA Marketplace, an online resource intended to help farmers identify programs supporting sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices.
The media release says the Marketplace currently allows Ontario farmers to explore, save and compare more than 55 programs. Under Phase 2, that database is expected to expand to at least 160 programs nationally.
AI-enabled tools are also planned to help farmers identify potentially relevant programs, understand eligibility and other requirements, and assess considerations when combining or “stacking” multiple programs.
That could address a practical challenge for producers: financial assistance may exist, but identifying which programs apply to an individual operation and understanding whether different incentives can be used together can add another layer of complexity.
Another $10.5 Million Supports Expansion
Phase 2 is being supported by a new $10.5-million philanthropic contribution from the Weston family, according to CANZA.
It follows the family's original $7-million contribution that helped launch the initiative in 2025. The original funding formed part of a wider $50-million Weston family commitment toward regenerative agriculture in Canada.
While the latest expansion involves another 36,000 Ontario acres, the longer-term objective is considerably larger.
The Million Acre Challenge is ultimately intended to encourage farmer-led adoption of climate-smart and regenerative practices across one million acres of Canadian farmland, according to CANZA.
The program began in Southwestern Ontario, but CANZA has described the initiative as one intended to expand nationally in the years ahead.
For Ontario farmers, the more immediate opportunity arrives soon.
Recruitment for Phase 2 is scheduled to begin in December 2026, with additional recruitment partners expected to help CANZA reach producers across Southwestern Ontario.
For more information about enrolling, visit the CANZA website.