ASCA's Programs
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program (GHGMP)
ASCA acts as BC's delivery agent for the Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program (GHGMP), sponsored by The Soil Conservation Council of Canada. The objectives of the GHGMP are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture and agri-food sector through soil, nutrient and livestock management practices and to increase carbon sinks. Although the scope of the GHGMP program is quite wide, ASCA focuses on various sustainable manure management techniques. Click here for more information on this ASCA Program.
Greenhouse Gas Calculator to be Tested
-by Bruce Fatkin , BC Taking Charge Team Leader
The Abbotsford Soil Conservation Association will be participating in another in a series of projects around Greenhouse Gas emissions from farming. This latest is the first test of a new tool to help quantify how management changes in one area might impact emissions from other parts of an operation.
In recent years ASCA has contributed to a series of national programs aimed at helping farms identify Best Management strategies that also reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions, sometimes by storing carbon on-farm in soils, compost and plants. These projects, while useful, also pointed to the need to better identify and understand how making a change in one area of farm management might affect net Greenhouse Gas emissions in another area. For example, we need to know are the emissions from on-farm composting and eventual application less or more than surface application of raw manures in various operating styles.
With information gathered from previous on-farm work and from research at several universities, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has taken the lead in developing a computer software program that we are hoping will help forecast the net changes in emissions from, even slight changes in farming practices. Participating farms will input information about their farm including current management. The Calculator indicates the likely Greenhouse Gas emissions from that farm. It then presents the opportunity to change facets of farm management and forecast the net changes in Greenhouse Gas emissions from the farm. Several combinations of scenarios can be explored.
Called Holos, the prototype is to be tested on just under 1,000 farms across Canada, including about 90 in B.C. Farms operators will be assisted in testing Holos by ASCA Coordinator Kristine Schlamp and other trained operators. The aim of the testing is to confirm the Calculator’s relevance and usefulness and to identify additions and adjustments that will enhance the effectiveness of the program and help make Holos more user- friendly.