Bolstered by a $2.9 million cash injection and unsure if there'll be more where that came from, the Environmental Farm Plan program has launched an aggressive winter workshop schedule in Eastern Ontario.
Under terms of the EFP, eligible farmers can reap grants of up to $1500 each to reduce environmental risks on their farms. Some 14,000 farmers have participated since the plan's inception five years ago.
Interested farmers are encouraged to get involved now because Agricultural Adaptation Council funding is only guaranteed until March of next year and funds are allotted on a first-come, first-served basis.
Some of the workshop dates and locations include Kinburn, Jan. 20 and 27; Williamsburg, Jan. 26 and Feb. 2; Kemptville, Jan. 28 and Feb. 4; Chesterville, Feb. 3 and 10; Almonte, Feb. 5 and 12; Osgoode, Feb. 11 and 25; Eastons Corners, Feb. 15 and Mar. 1; Pakenham, Mar. 1 and 8; South Mountain, Mar. 3 and 10; Roebuck, Mar. 30 and Apr. 6; and Richmond, Apr. 8 and 15.
Since its inception, the EFP has made tremendous inroads into the practices - and into the psyches- of the province's farmers.
"In the first couple of years, it was mostly Soil and Crop directors getting involved," said Winchester-based OMAFRA agrep Phyllis MacMaster. "But now the plan has definitely reached the general farm population."
Funded federally and sponsored by the Ontario Farm Environmental Coalition (OFEC), responsibility for delivery of the program rests with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association and OMAFRA which provides technical support through 36 regional advisors.
To date, more than $6.2 million in project claims have run through the program, leading to a total investment in the rural economy when farmers' contributions are counted of some $24 million. The latest financial boost of $2.9 million was announced last November to top up EFP incentives which were in danger of running out.
The participation rate in the program represents an uptake of more than 25 per cent of Ontario's total farm population. Participants make management decisions for an estimated 3.7 million acres of Ontario cropland.
Other observers agree with MacMaster that the plan has been embraced as a relatively painless way to introduce greater environmental responsibility into day-to-day activities while correcting shortcomings around the farm... at least partly at government expense.
Greater awareness of the EFP has brought wider participation, MacMaster said. Going through the EFP process has become a great learning tool for farmers, helping them become more aware of their own operations.
"And it's certainly better to be proactive with a plan designed by farmers and managed by farmers than reactive after being forced to take environmental action."
The EFP originates with the report, Our Farm Environmental Agenda, developed early this decade by the OFEC ...the OFA, CFFO, AGCare, and the Ontario Farm Animal Council.
The document outlined key agricultural environmental concerns and recommended that every Ontario farm family develop an individual environmental plan tailored to its own needs. Under the EFP, goals described in the coalition agenda are rapidly becoming the new reality.
To win over what plan founders knew would be a reluctant constituency, they relied on a tried and true mixture of incentives and rewards to encourage participation. The biggest single incentive is the $1500 grant. And an award contest offers $1000 cash prizes to winners devising practical, innovative and economical methods of accomplishing environmental goals.
Most farmers don't simply take the cash and run after implementing a few improvements, stressed Arlene Ross, farm plan workshop leader for the counties of Carleton, Lanark, Grenville and Dundas. The provincial average shows participating farmers invest three of their own dollars for every one spent by taxpayers.
"In many cases, the $1500 will only begin to cover costs; but it's a motivator to do the environmental work now instead of later."
Ross, who's been with the program since its inception, has encountered "tremendous" interest over the past two years. Early participants are now voluntarily coming back to finish what they started.
"In the first couple of years, people were skeptical and things were relatively quiet with only the most progressive farmers becoming involved. Then it took off like crazy."
Mainly through word-of-mouth, would-be participants have become comfortable in the knowledge that personal details remain confidential: "It's seen as a non-threatening program."
Farmers are reeled in through an intensive series of winter workshops outlining the benefits and incentives of the EFP. Home study kits are also available.
The Bible is the EFP Workbook containing 23 risk assessment modules with more than 250 questions relating to farm activities divided into three general groupings... the farmstead, general practices, and sensitive natural areas.
Participants are invited to rank their current level of environmental risk under each question as best, good, fair, or poor. An action plan in the workbook offers guidance in setting priority areas of environmental concern and in establishing a timetable for action. Complimenting the EFP process is a series of Best Management Practices booklets representing proven and innovative state-of-the-art knowledge on agriculture environmental issues.
Completed action plans are submitted for peer review to county committees, knowledgeable members of the local farming community. Once the plan is approved, applicants are invited to participate in the $1500 incentive program.
Some reoccurring problem areas which farmers regularly address through the EFP include reducing tillage, removing underground fuel tanks, installing eavestroughing near manure storage, improving field drainage and milkhouse wastewater handling, increasing fencing for rotational grazing and separation from stream and ditches, upgrading septic systems, plugging abandoned wells, and improving pesticide and fertilizer storage.
Ross held 26 workshops across her four counties last season with at least as many expected this season. She said attendance averages about 22 per workshop. Over the past year, some 200 individual plans were approved in her region.
Chairing the Dundas County committee is Winchester area dairy farmer Brian Vandenberg who is also president of the CFFO for Eastern Ontario.
"It was a slow train coming but it has finally arrived," said Vandenberg, revealing that interest in Dundas doubled last year over all previous years combined. He attributed the rate of acceptance to the EFP track record developed over five years.
Farmers also like the self-evaluation aspect of the program. Ross and Vandenberg agreed that county committees bend over backwards to help applicants meet requirements of the plan, often sending them home to revise their submissions.
"Confidentiality was the main concern for a lot of us," Vandenberg said, adding that he personally enrolled four years ago as a preventative measure to make sure he was putting a new well in the best possible place on his farm so as to protect his water supply.