By Barb Keith-Badour
AgriNew Contributor

GUELPH – The Ontario On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) provides cost-share funding to farmers to support their implementation of best management practices that tackle climate change through reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and supporting increased carbon sequestration. Cost-share funding is available to implement or expand rotational grazing systems, cover cropping, and nitrogen management. The investment farmers are making in their farm’s soil health is an investment in climate action, and in their long-term productivity, profitability and sustainability. 

Applications to the Ontario OFCAF program are currently being accepted. To be eligible to receive Ontario OFCAF funding, the proposed project must be new to the field location indicated in the application. A new practice is one that has not been previously implemented. Examples of eligible projects that farmers can apply for include costs for planting cover crops that will be left undisturbed over the winter, the purchase and spreading of organic amendments, equipment purchases to support manure injection, purchase of nitrogen stabilizers, and establishing a new, or expanding the acreage of an existing rotational grazing system for livestock.  Cost-share funding is available under OFCAF at 65% of approved, eligible costs. Each project category has a funding cap and a farm business can access a maximum of $75,000 in cost-share funds for all approved applications under the program.  

Kevin and Suzanne Bovey of Bovey Family Farms in Frontenac County received Ontario OFCAF funding in 2023 for implementing a rotational grazing system that included portable suns shades, and alternate water systems. They also completed a cover cropping project. The Bovey’s share, “OFCAF has been a fantastic program for our farm. The results of the projects are proving to be a success for both our cattle and the environment and its ecosystems.”

In Ontario, OFCAF is delivered to farmers by the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) with funding provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the Agricultural Climate Solutions – On-Farm Climate Action Fund.  

For more information on Ontario OFCAF and how to apply, please visit: www.ontariosoilcrop.org/ontario-on-farm-climate-action-fund/. Farmers with questions can email OFCAF@ontariosoilcrop.org or check out the Contact Us page of the OSCIA website to find a Field Representative near them.  

The current intake opened to accept applications on Aug. 1, 2024, and will close when available funding has been fully allocated.