Big uptake from P.E.I. farmers for climate funding

A federal program saw huge interest from P.E.I. farmers who snapped up about $2.5 million dollars in climate funding in just a few weeks. 

Rimsha Khan is a climate action specialist with the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture, the group that's distributing the funds. 

"It's a very overwhelming response, it's a great thing," said Khan. 

Khan said they saw a wide range of people applying for the funding from small farms to larger operations. 

This is the second year for The Agricultural Climate Solutions On Farm Climate Action Fund, which was created to help farms develop practices to reduce greenhouse gases released from agricultural activity. 

'Game changer'

Farmer Alan Miller says the climate fund was a game changer for his grains and oilseed farming operation in Elmwood. 

Miller said he wouldn't have been able to afford to buy the new equipment on his own.

He used the money to help buy a fertilizer applicator which uses GPS to track where the fertilizer goes. 

"If you've already been over an area it automatically knows and it shuts off that part of the spreader, so it really takes care of human error and puts exactly the amount of fertilizer that I want on," he said. 

Miller said in the past, he would miss parts of his winter wheat field or make double applications in some places.

"If you have the right amount of nitrogen, the plants take it up and you don't get the emissions," 

Using less fertilizer

It's also saved him money, which is helpful when fertilizer has almost doubled in price.

He estimates he uses about 10 per cent less fertilizer now. 

Beef farmer Nick Green got funding to help with rotational grazing fencing and new water lines, to supply water to other fields. 

Green said with rotational grazing, cattle are rotated in smaller paddocks in a controlled way, compared to just letting the animals out in a large field. It means some parts of the field can be left alone for 20 days. 

"You can control how much they're going to consume from an area so it doesn't get overgrazed," said Green. 

He said there's lots of benefits to it from soil improvement and moisture conservation to reducing the need to haul feed to other areas. 

Farmers saving money  

Green also said improving the soil's health has also meant saving some money when it comes to feeding his cattle. 

He said he suspects the big uptake is related to increasing costs farmers are facing. 

"People typically won't do anything unless there's a cost benefit" he said. 

Khan says adopting new scientific ways of farming can be expensive if farmers have to pay for new equipment themselves. 

She said the federation is hoping they will be able to get more funds, to help more farmers who were interested in the program.  

"Our farmers are really ready to adopt these practices and if we can help them in that, that would be great," said Khan.