Atlantic Canada is not an agricultural powerhouse.
The four provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador — have a combined 853,000 acres of field crops and hay land. As of Jan. 1, there were approximately 190,000 head of cattle in the region.
In comparison, Saskatchewan has 40 million acres of field crops and hay, and the province had 2.1 million cattle on Jan. 1, says Statistics Canada.
Despite the huge discrepancy in scale, the federal On Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) views the two regions as equals.
The program will distribute about $41.5 million to farmers in Atlantic Canada from 2025-28, while Saskatchewan producers may receive $40 to 48 million over the same period.
When converted into dollars per acre, producers in Atlantic Canada could receive $49 per acre in OFCAF subsidies, while Saskatchewan farmers will receive $1 to $1.20 per acre.
Those numbers come from an Agriculture Canada website and acreage data from the 2021 Census of Agriculture.
The On-Farm Climate Action Fund provides financial incentives to farmers who try cover crops, rotational grazing of cattle and improved management of nitrogen fertilizer. Those practices can cut emissions from fertilizer, possibly store more carbon in the soil and make farms more resilient to climate change.
In January 2025, the federal government put an additional $300 million into OFCAF, bringing the total investment to $700 million.
The funding has attracted the attention of some politicians, who argue that Agriculture Canada should invest in research and innovation rather than programs connected to climate change.
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