The new Living Lab – Racines d’avenir

As part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Agricultural Climate Solutions – Living Labs program launched in 2021, 14 projects have been launched across the country, including 2 in Quebec in 2023-2024:

• Living Lab – Racines d’avenir from the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA)
• Living Lab – Lait carboneutre from Les Producteurs de lait du Québec

Each Living Lab brings together farmers, scientists and other industry partners to co-develop, test and evaluate innovative agricultural technologies and practices under actual production conditions. The aim of these initiatives is to accelerate the adoption of sustainable solutions on farms to combat climate change. In other words, technologies and agricultural practices that meet the real needs of producers are tested, evaluated and improved directly on local farms, that is, at the scale where they will be adopted.

Living Labs are more than just research projects. They are innovation projects supported by research. The Living Lab – Racines d’avenir project is made possible by the active collaboration of over 75 agricultural producers in 14 regions of Quebec: Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Côte-Nord, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspésie, Chaudière-Appalaches, Capitale-Nationale, Estrie, Centre-du-Québec, Mauricie, Lanaudière, Laurentides, Outaouais and Montérégie. In addition to producers from the UPA network, the following partners are involved in the project:

• agricultural advisors from VIA Pôle d'expertise en services-conseils agricoles;
• representatives of the Conseil pour le développement de l'agriculture du Québec;
• researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, universities and other research and knowledge transfer organizations; and
• specialists in agricultural production industries are also involved in this project.

The aim of the project is to innovate in order to strengthen the capacity of agricultural producers to adopt beneficial management practices that enhance carbon sequestration or reduce their company's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Living Laboratories approach will enable interactive and collaborative research and action mechanisms to be put in place throughout the project, with direct implication by the producers. Capacity building will be based on knowledge sharing among the various participants.

Five innovation cells have been set up to achieve these objectives:

• Cell 1: Increasing carbon sequestration in agricultural soil, with 30 producers;
• Cell 2: Reducing carbon footprint through forage management and feeding, with 20 producers;
• Cell 3: Reducing the carbon footprint by managing fertilizers, in particular animal manure, with 16 producers;
• Cell 4: Ecological restoration, preservation and reappropriation of sweetgrass in the St. Lawrence Valley, with the W8banaki Nation and a producer in the Saint-Pierre Lake region;
• Cell 5: Agroforestry and sustainable river management, with 10 producers.

Each cell is coordinated by a person in charge of co-development activities among producers, advisors and specialists. A scientific advisor ensures that research activities meet the needs expressed by producers.

Beneficial management practices focus on:

• Cover crops (catch crops), intercropping and green manures. Cover crops are mainly sown after the harvest (catch crops) or in the presence of the main crop (intercrops). Green manure crops are sown at the end of the summer season and can be left on the ground or buried in the spring. They improve soil health (protection against erosion, structuring, increased biological activity). They also help build up carbon in the soil and reduce environmental losses of nitrogen through leaching or nitrous oxide emissions (N2O). As a result of this set of benefits, cover crops and green manure help reduce soil GHG emissions (CO2 and N2O) and reduce the business's carbon footprint.
• Organic matter should be added to the soil, either through crop residues or organic fertilizers. They improve structure, increase biological activity and help maintain soil humus. Crop residues come from the previous crop and help reduce the risk of erosion by water and wind.
• Feed management practices to reduce GHG emissions.
• Forage crop management to improve carbon sequestration.
• Pit slurry management practices and pit slurry acidification to reduce GHG emissions from stored slurry.
• Ecological restoration, preservation and reappropriation of sweetgrass in the St. Lawrence Valley with Indigenous communities.
• Agroforestry to improve carbon sequestration on farms.
• Sustainable management of watercourses to promote sediment retention and improve water quality.

In addition to these specific benefits that producers would get by adopting beneficial management practices, the practices could also provide anticipated co-benefits for water, soil and biodiversity, as well as socio-economic impacts and climate change adaptation for farm businesses.

The beneficial management practices developed by the innovation cells will have a major knowledge transfer component for all producers, advisors and other stakeholders who are not actively involved. Thus the lessons learned will benefit the entire farming community.

The Living Lab – Racines d’avenir project will take place from 2023 to 2028.