B.C. farmers and ranchers can reduce their risks from extreme weather through a new pilot program that will help improve farms’ climate-change preparedness and resilience to wildfires, flooding and extreme heat.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen the extreme impacts of climate-related weather events on our farming communities, and we are taking action to support farmers and ranchers with climate-change adaptation tools and projects,” said Lana Popham, agriculture and food minister.

The Extreme Weather Preparedness for Agriculture program will support as much as $1.5 million in projects this year to help famers conduct risk assessments and make infrastructure upgrades on their farms.

Examples of projects eligible for funding include:

• FireSmart Critical Infrastructure assessments;

• farm building retrofits for wildfire preparedness;

• improved on-farm fuel storage and well protection for flood preparedness;

• reconfiguration of high-value feed storage for flood preparedness;

• farm building retrofits to improve cooling during extreme heat;

• enhanced watering and shade to mitigate crop and livestock heat stress; and

• infrastructure improvements to support tree and berry canopy cooling as well as shade and heat protection for harvested fruit, berry or vegetable crops.

The program is open to farm and ranch businesses throughout B.C., with applications initially being accepted from July 25 to Aug. 15, 2022. It is anticipated that the program will continue in 2023 and 2024, with the potential for adjustments based on experiences in the pilot year. Funding for the 2022 pilot intake will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis for eligible agriculture businesses.

Eligible applicants can access as much as $35,000 each in cost-shared funding for the first intake of the Extreme Weather Preparedness for Agriculture program.

Source:  British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food July 15, 2022 news release