Media Contacts

Dave Townsend

Media Relations
Ministry of Agriculture and Food
250 356-7098
250 889-5945 (mobile)

Annie Cullinan

Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
annie.cullinan@agr.gc.ca

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Media Relations
Ottawa, Ontario
613 773-7972
1 866 345-7972
aafc.mediarelations-relationsmedias.aac@agr.gc.ca

Backgrounders

Regional extension projects underway

Projects underway through the Regional Extension Program:

4bZ Consulting, Forage Based Solutions, Robert MacGregor Tegart:

  • $75,000 ($25,000 each) to provide livestock drought workshops in drought-affected regions in B.C. to give farmers the information they need so they can be better prepared and implement new strategies and best management practices that help them adapt to the impacts of climate change. 

Aspen Films Inc.:

  • $95,000 to work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food to create 12 to 15 AgriService BC videos on the Regional Extension Program’s projects.  

Associated Environmental Consultants Inc.:

  • $50,000 to work with producers and hold field days in the North Okanagan, Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island to help farmers adopt best management practices that will reduce phosphorus loss and improve soil health on farms.

BC Cattlemen’s Association:

  • $260,000 to help farmers and ranchers adopt targeted grazing practices, and test and monitor grazing best management practices on farms in the Cariboo, Kootenays, Okanagan and Thompson-Nicola regions so farmers can be better prepared for wildfires.

BC Cattlemen’s Association:

  • $36,450 to create materials to develop a silvopasture training workshop and hold field days for farmers and ranchers in the Thompson-North Okanagan so they can learn about and apply new and best management practices that improve water quality and land-use planning. 

BC Cattlemen’s Association:

  • $200,000 to test and demonstrate the use of the Landscape and Range Resiliency Planning Tool, a climate-change modelling and surface water risk-assessment tool, in the Bulkley Nechako, Cariboo and Kootenay regions to help farmers better prepare for impacts of climate change.

BC Potato & Vegetable Growers’ Association:

  • $47,000 to evaluate nutrient and water management for growing potatoes in the Fraser Valley using combinations of irrigation and fertilizer treatments, and develop a report with best management practices for mitigating heat and drought to share with farmers during field days so they can better adapt growing techniques to the changing climate.

David E. Tattam (contractor):

  • $10,000 to support producers in the Koksilah River watershed on Vancouver Island with an irrigation-scheduling project to help them be better prepared for drought conditions from the impacts of climate change.

Delta Farmers’ Institute:

  • $80,500 to expand the salinity-monitoring network (measures the salt in the water supply) in Delta, develop a mobile app for producers to access the information from the network and provide a field day to help farmers with irrigation scheduling.  

E.S. Cropconsult Ltd.:

  • $30,000 to support on-farm demonstration research and field days for berry and vegetable growers to promote regenerative agriculture practices that increase resilience to climate change and support economic viability.

E.S. Cropconsult Ltd.:

  • $3,660 to deliver bi-weekly integrated pest-management newsletters for potato growers in B.C. to help with key pest issues and provide recommendations during the growing season to help with crop production.

George W. Powell (agrology consultant):

  • $56,000 to test and create a self-guided online learning "silvopasture" workshop for farmers and ranchers so they can learn about and apply new and best management practices that improve water quality and land-use planning.

Irrigation Industry Association of BC:

  • $29,740 to provide field days and workshops for water management and training across B.C. for farmers and ranchers to be better prepared for drought conditions, and train provincial government employees on agricultural water management so they can support agricultural producers.

Reid Lake Farmer’s Institute: 

  • $5,000 to look at pasture-renovation techniques that will help the soil in aged pastures in the region so farmers can use the land.

Sustainable Winegrowing BC:

  • $3,400 to deliver four cover-crop knowledge transfer field days in 2023 on the different growth stages of vineyards and how they impact cover-crop management to support farmers in the Okanagan. 

Vancouver Island Cattlemen’s Association:

  • $56,120 to help manage and mitigate the impacts of climate change by demonstrating suitable crops for the region that will help farmers and ranchers improve crop-climate resilience, increase yield and reduce the use of fertilizer for forage and feed production on Vancouver Island.