[UPDATED]—The On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) will be extended to provide an additional $300 million over the next three years, the federal government announced this week.
The goal of OFCAF is to allow for easier adoption of on-farm management practices like cover cropping, rotational grazing and nitrogen management by lowering implementation costs. The program has supported over 7,500 farmers since 2022.
The money will be distributed through 13 organizations across Canada. Canadian producers can apply for funding through the individual organizations and can use the Government of Canada’s OFCAF web tool to determine which organization best suits their operation.
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Travis Quirk, Canadian Forage and Grassland Association (CFGA) OFCAF project lead said via a Jan. 28 press release the additional funding will “continue helping producers prioritize and deploy beneficial management practices to improve farm resilience and help stem the impacts of climate change.”
Quirk said CFGA anticipates major changes to the delivery of the program and will continue to release information in the coming weeks. In anticipation of high demand, he also encouraged producers to “familiarize themselves with advanced grazing systems learning resources the CFGA offers” and complete grazing plans ahead of an April intake of project submissions.
First announced in 2021, the OFCAF allocated $200 million to supporting farmers to adopt beneficial management practices in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The funded practices fall into three categories: cover cropping, nitrogen management and rotational grazing.
The fund grew to $704.1 by early 2024. That total does not appear to have changed.
—Updated Jan. 30
