Farming Smarter wants to create a Living Lab for agriculture climate solutions with partners and deliver practical agriculture solutions to southern Alberta through a recently announced federal government program – Agricultural Climate Solutions (ACS). The goal of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada program is to support the development and implementation of farming practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases.
Our region knows how to cooperate!
Farming Smarter spearheads an ACS application focused on crop production in southern Alberta. “We are looking to generate and spread awareness about this program and our intention to lead a Living Lab focused on southern Alberta. It’s a great opportunity to help improve some problem areas and keep our agriculture at the forefront,” says Ken Coles, Farming Smarter Executive Director.
The premise of this application is collaboration. The concept of Living Labs is one we already use in our research. Farming Smarter applies the principles of focusing on farmer’s needs, collaborating with partners of diverse expertise and testing in real-life context. This makes us a perfect fit to lead this initiative in southern Alberta.
“For our research, we hear needs and issues and build on that,” said Coles. “We wouldn’t look to lead it, but to build an environment in which we and our partners could co-lead it. This way we can discover problems that we may not know exist; emboldening our partners and identifying new research projects.”
We would cultivate this program by creating a strategic plan with input from all our collaborative partners. This would help us achieve the goal of discovering better practices to meet climate requirements while innovating technology. Our goal is to preserve the tools that work and build on the successes that we have while discovering more ways to help farmers do a better job.
If you want more information about this initiative, please contact Ken Coles