Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program investing in improved agricultural lands

Jul 17, 2024

St. John’s, NL – Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

The federal and provincial governments are investing in projects that will help farmers adopt beneficial land-use management practices that will increase environmental resiliency among farms in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Funding from the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program helped support 17 initiatives in Newfoundland and Labrador in the program’s first year (2023-24), with an investment of more than $708,000. To date in 2024-25, 30 projects with a value of $868,039 have been approved to implement Beneficial Management Practices on 487 acres of land.

The current 2024-25 intake period saw increased interest with 40 applications submitted during this period – almost double the number of applications received in 2023-24. Review of applications for the current intake period is ongoing. Applications will open again in Spring 2025.

The Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program (RALP) focuses on improving ecosystems through:

Activities that decrease the amount of marginal and fragile land used for cropping.
Activities that maintain healthy, resilient soils while naturally mitigating the impacts of climate change on farms.
Agri-environmental beneficial management practices that seek to increase and enhance multiple ecological goods and services.
Awareness and knowledge transfer, extension services, program development and product development services related to eligible RALP activities and outreach.

Initiatives include maintaining and providing healthy soil and water resources, wildlife habitat and biodiversity, and adapting to the impacts of climate change. Specific projects and funding amounts are listed in the Backgrounder.

Source : Canada.ca

Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?