Canada/Climate change: a program to help Avignon's agricultural producers

The MRC Avignon is now helping agricultural producers on its territory to adapt to the climate changes they have been facing for several years.

The aim of this new program is to implement preventive measures and improve crops over the long term.

To this end, the MRC made a $100,000 envelope available in April. Each project meeting the criteria can benefit from up to $4,000 in assistance. There's financial assistance, but there's also all the support behind it. We have an agronomist at the MRC who can help them think about their project [...]," explains Avignon prefect Mathieu Lapointe.

He adds that six producers have already implemented measures thanks to this initiative, and that two others are currently being supported.

Agricultural producers have raised profitability issues related to climate change, as well as the fact that they are struggling to cope with it, as part of the development planning for Avignon's agricultural zone (PDZA).

In particular, market gardeners experienced a difficult 2023 season due to heavy rainfall. But from one year to the next, with the impact of climate change, what we see is that there is often one type of agricultural production or another that will [experience] impacts on its productivity," observes Mathieu Lapointe.

The Reeve points out that production costs have climbed since the COVID-19 pandemic, and that certain expenses, such as diesel, are difficult to reduce or eliminate.

Mr. Lapointe explains that the idea behind the new program is therefore to increase and stabilize the production of the main stakeholders, and consequently their revenues. Even if we gave financial assistance one year, it wouldn't guarantee or increase revenues for future years. So it was by working with [agricultural producers] that we came up with these solutions.

We think it will really meet producers' needs in the long term.

A quote from Mathieu Lapointe, Prefect of MRC Avignon

Reeve Lapointe believes that Avignon could be one of the first MRCs in the province to offer such support. We've already had a number of RCMs come to us with the idea, and we're very happy to share it.

ix different areas of focus

The pilot project targets six different areas, including the improvement of surface drainage through mechanized work, the installation of underground drainage to better control the flow of water, and the development of a new drainage system.installation of subsurface drainage to better control the water table and the establishment of multispecies meadows or pastures to be more resilient.

According to Mathieu Lapointe, an evaluation of the program will be carried out at the end of the year to see if it can be further enhanced.

The MRC Avignon has 62 agricultural producers.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/