Governments investing to improve Ontario farmland

More than $12.2 million has been awarded to Ontario farmers to make their agricultural lands more resilient against extreme weather events, increase biodiversity and enhance  soil and water health.

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The funding, through the first intake of the Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program, is supporting 213 projects which include the planting of grasslands and trees, reducing tillage, and creating water retention ponds.

Rob Flack, Ontario’s minister of Food, Agriculture and Agribusiness, made the announcement in Straffordville Oct. 9 at a farm owned by Bonnie Ball and her son Trevor Coehlo.

Through the program, Coelho said they have been able to plant more trees along some of the boundary of the 150-acre farm property that is prone to erosion. The boundary had mostly coniferous trees but the family worked with the local conservation authority to determine that adding hardwood species would help prevent the loss of soil into the Little Otter Creek, which borders the back of the farm property.

In a heavy rain event last year, Coelho said one-quarter of an acre was washed out.

He said they wanted to maintain existing field edges, “planting trees around where it might wash out, to help stabilize the banks.”

Coelho said another 45-acre property the family owns nearby has funding approval through the program for a wetland project to help with surface drainage issues and gully erosion.

Funding is still available through the second intake of the initiative which opened on June 3, 2024 and administered by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.

In a release, Flack said “We strongly encourage our farmers to apply and take advantage of the Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program, as funding remains available and open for new applications. This is an exceptional opportunity that we want extended across Ontario’s almost $51 billion agricultural sector.”

Eligible applicants could receive $30 per acre for reduced tillage, and up to $25,000 per acre for the establishment of new wetlands on agricultural lands.

The funding is provided through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. The total investment into the Resilient Agricultural Landscape Program is $20 million and the intake will close when the funds are fully allocated.

For more information on the program, visit https://www.ontariosoilcrop.org/resilient-agricultural-landscape-program/