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By Ananka Shah, Socio-economic Analyst, AAFC
Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) are a growing suite of farming techniques designed to increase environmental sustainability while mitigating the negative impacts of agricultural production. Agriculture and Agri- Food Canada’s (AAFC) Living Lab Initiative focuses on accelerating the development and adoption of these sustainable practices through partnering with farmers, scientists, and other collaborators. Currently, there are Living Labs across Canada. Each Living Lab aims to co-develop innovative technologies and on-farm management practices that can be adopted by farmers nationwide to help address climate change and other environmental issues. In order to do this, teams across all the Living Labs are working together to test and monitor BMPs to develop practical and scientifically proven solutions that help protect biodiversity on farms, improve water and soil quality, and, through the efficient management of resources, strengthen farmers’ bottom lines. The co-development process helps ensure that innovations are economically viable, technically feasible and desirable for the producers in addition to being scientifically sound.
One key element in promoting BMP adoption is understanding the socio-economic factors that drive BMP uptake so that agro-environmental policies and programs can effectively target and enhance BMP adoption. With this objective in mind, many of the Living Lab sites (Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, and PEI) conducted surveys between 2020-2022 to better comprehend barriers and incentives for BMP adoption as well as the range of factors that influence adoption decisions such as farm and farmer characteristics, local policies, and relationships with extension specialists. Many of the Living Lab sites have already derived useful insights by analyzing the data and have created infographics, on rates of BMP adoption, as well as barriers and incentives to BMP adoption in Ontario, to convey these insights to farmers.

The data collected across all the Living Lab sites will be compiled and analyzed to provide a nationwide picture of BMP adoption behavior across provinces, farming sectors and farmer groups. The findings from these surveys may help producers by providing them with the information on cost-effective and sustainable BMPs. Due to the Living Lab project, policymakers and agricultural extension specialists are now gaining a better understanding of farmers’ needs across regions and producer groups.
These results will also be used to help estimate potential for farmer adoption of BMPs, with the use of the ADOPT model. The ADOPT model is the Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction Tool, which is used to help provide tangible estimations and targets for improving how farmers can be supported to take on soil health BMPs.
With new funding cycles from Agricultural Climate Solutions, the second phase of the Living Lab Initiative will have an increased focus on BMPs that sequester carbon and/or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The end goal is to promote environmental sustainability and resiliency in the agriculture sector, and for the agriculture sector to help contribute towards Canada meeting its international climate change goals.
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