The Ontario Soil and Crop…

The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) is proud to have been part of the collaborative team that contributed to developing the draft Agricultural Soil Health and Conservation Strategy, and pleased with the opportunity to submit comments. We are a not-for-profit farm organization with local member groups across 50 counties and districts. Our mandate is to facilitate responsible economic management of soil, water, air and crops through development and communication of innovative farming practices. The organization is farmers actively seeking, testing and adopting optimal farm production and stewardship practices. Our number one applied research priority is soil health. OSCIA has also been deeply engaged in the delivery of both educational and cost-share programs in the broader farm community for 30-years on behalf of provincial and federal governments, perhaps the most notable being the Environmental Farm Plan. More can be found by visiting ontariosoilcrop.org The draft strategy is a most impressive document and we commend the leadership shown by the Ministry. We agree that soil health, climate change, water quality and food security are intrinsically linked, and that heightening soil management efforts is essential to build economic, environmental and societal benefits for the entire province. OSCIA is prepared to explore further opportunities to actively engage in education efforts and applied research to convincingly and clearly demonstrate profitable and sustainable soil management practices. Much has been accomplished in recent years on education and supporting the adoption of best practices through Growing Forward 2 and the Great Lakes Agricultural Stewardship Initiative, and we look forward to similar programming being offered through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. We are fully prepared to continue in our delivery role. Many questions remain on the effectiveness of best management practices (BMPs) at measurably improving soil health. The work in the priority sub-watershed studies originally supported through GLASI needs to be continued. Many of the farmers are on board, and the instrumentation, agronomists, scientists and modelers are all in place. There is much that remains to be learned and with the continued cooperation of the farm businesses involved, there are unique opportunities to probe much deeper to understand the best management systems on these varied landscapes to realize sustainable and profitable production, without compromising water quality and ecological goods and services. Over recent decades the term conservation tillage was used to define systems that typically achieved a minimum 30% of the soil surface covered with residue from the previous crop at planting. Looking back, this logic perhaps did not put enough emphasis on the importance of soil structure and aggregate stability. Arguably, many leaders in our organization see far too much reliance on iron to solve issues with compaction and poor drainage, when in fact the fixes may be very short lived and in some instances could exacerbate the issues. The solutions are admittedly complex, but we suggest placing more attention on soil life, cover crops and crop rotation, and focusing on only no-till and selected strip till systems. Our local associations are keenly interested in applied research in soil health and look forward to seeing increased opportunity to access funding resources to investigate innovative practices and evaluate effectiveness by tracking changes in soil health, erosion and soil organic matter. These are essential performance measures and we strongly support expanded efforts across the province to gather and synthesize the applicable data. We acknowledge the renewed commitment by the Ministry to improve the accuracy and availability of soil maps, and trust there will be an accelerated effort over the coming years to apply the refined mapping and inventory techniques to more and more counties and districts. Understanding the characteristics of soil and how it differs across the landscape is fundamental to employing strategic practices to ensure its health and productivity. The OSCIA is encouraged by the plans to establish a collaborative group to oversee implementation and adaptive management of the strategy, and is fully prepared to commit a representative. The time for concerted and coordinated actions to advance soil health and conservation is now! Thank you for the opportunity to convey some of our thoughts on this important document.

[Original Comment ID: 211607]