AgroCarbone Grandes Cultures is a program aimed at developing viable business models to help field crop farmers reach the targets for reducing agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Our governments are aware of the impact of climate change and will continue to tighten regulations in the coming years. The challenge for farmers is twofold. They have to:

1. Adapt to climate change

2. Change course when GHG reduction targets change

For dairy farms, sustainable agriculture and animal welfare go hand in hand. Why? Because ensuring cow comfort contributes to a high productivity and aligns operations with consumer expectations.

Sustainable agriculture is commonly associated with reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Sollio Agriculture’s crop production research farm has been innovating for 45 years. These days, scientists at the farm are busy testing seed varieties and agricultural practices aimed at helping farmers adapt to climate change while optimizing crop profitability.

At the Sollio Agriculture crop production research farm, scientists are testing seed varieties and agricultural practices to help Canadian farmers adapt to climate change while optimizing crop profitability. Here’s what they’re working on in 2024.

Farmers need to adapt to climate change. And to do that, they need a solid game plan. That’s where Sollio Agriculture’s sustainable farming diagnostic tool comes in. The easy‑to‑use, customizable tool gives farmers a clear picture of their situation so they can find viable solutions.

For the past two years, Sollio Agriculture’s research farm has been testing management practices and conducting research to train agri-advisors and help farmers adopt new sustainable farming practices. Like these three projects:

1. Harvesting rainwater with an irrigation pond

Although it isn’t a research project per se, the farm pond collects rainwater that is used to irrigate the fusarium nursery.

When our agri-advisors receive a question from a farmer, they answer based on the technical and practical knowledge they have gained over the years, as well as all the first-hand experience they have gained in their careers. Our agri-advisors include agronomists and professional technologists, some who grew up on a farm and some who did not, but they all bring their full knowledge to the table when it comes to making informed recommendations to farmers.

Analyzing soil in the field with a smart probe may not be such a distant dream after all. For some time now, staff at the Sollio Agriculture crop production research farm in Saint-Hyacinthe have been testing a probe from ChrysaLabs that could be used to adjust farming practices quickly and improve crop fertilization.

For the past two years, members of the research farm’s team have been lugging ChrysaLabs’ futuristic-looking, smart soil-analysis probe around their plots.

Farm businesses have many avenues to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including soil management, farming and breeding practices, and the recycling of manure and organic waste. Sollio Agriculture is currently investigating how farmers can benefit by earning carbon credits for adopting these practices.

Although little known and underestimated, fertilizing residual materials (FRMs) are a cost-saving solution for farmers.

“There’s an FRM for every need, from fertilizing to adding organic matter and correcting pH,” says Simon Naylor, Vice-President and Co-Founder of Viridis environnement. Viridis has a 70% share of the FRM recovery market and delivers 600,000 tonnes of organic matter to 700 farm businesses each year.

Ten years after they were first introduced on a large scale in onion fields in Montérégie, sterilized pink onion flies have successfully replaced a controversial insecticide, while generating a dramatic reduction in the natural populations of onion maggots (Delia antiqua), the main onion pest in Canada.

The sterile insect technique (SIT) works in a surprisingly simple and ingenious way. It essentially uses one pest to combat another. To do so, onion flies that are factory reared and sterilized through irradiation ahead of time are released into fields.