Evaluation of Agricultural Climate Solutions and the Living Laboratories Initiative Report — summary

About the evaluation

• The Office of Audit and Evaluation at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) conducted an evaluation of Agricultural Climate Solutions (ACS) – including both the Living Laboratories (ACS-LL) stream and the On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF) stream – to assess the program's relevance, efficiency and effectiveness. The Living Laboratories Initiative (LLI), which predated the ACS-LL, was also included in the evaluation.
• The evaluation covered activities from 2018-19 to 2023-24 and used multiple lines of evidence: a review of program documents, project files and literature; key informant interviews; program logic model and process mapping workshops; and case studies.

What we found

Relevance

• LLI, ACS-LL and OFCAF are well aligned with AAFC's core responsibility of science and innovation, with federal and international reporting obligations and with broader government goals.
• The living labs co-development approach is unique and federal-provincial-territorial efforts have minimized duplication among programs that focus on Best Management Practices (BMPs) (including OFCAF).

Design and delivery

• AAFC is well regarded in the development and implementation of the agroecosystem living labs approach. This approach enables collaboration between producers, scientists and other partners, which yields sustainable farming practices that are more likely to be adopted quickly by producers.
• The OFCAF model, utilizing industry organizations to deliver funding to producers, is well suited to the Program.
• The horizontal governance framework functions well to facilitate interdepartmental coordination and to fulfill the NCSF horizontal reporting framework and results tracking requirements.
• The relationship between ACS-LL and OFCAF could be clarified.

Performance

• Although not adequately measured under the Performance Information Profiles for ACS-LL and OFCAF, the development of strong relationships and trust networks emerged as a crucial outcome which may encourage increased BMP adoption.
• The LLI surpassed targets for all immediate and intermediate outcomes leading to successful results and anticipated increases in BMP adoption.
• Both ACS-LL and OFCAF are making efforts consistent with AAFC’s Framework to Support Underrepresented and Marginalized Groups in the sector.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1a: The Assistant Deputy Ministers of Programs Branch and Science and Technology Branch should, together, refine the performance measures of ACS-LL to better reflect and assess the relationship building, knowledge gains and behaviour changes in the sector that result from ACS-LL activities.

Recommendation 1b: The Assistant Deputy Minister of Programs Branch should refine the performance measures of OFCAF to better reflect and assess the relationship building, knowledge gains and behaviour changes in the sector that result from OFCAF activities.

Recommendation 2: The Assistant Deputy Minister of Program Branch, working with the Assistant Deputy Ministers of Science and Technology Branch and Strategic Policy Branch, should clarify the relationship between the ACS-LL and OFCAF and communicate this relationship to key stakeholders.

Recommendation 3: The Assistant Deputy Minister of Programs Branch should clarify application and assessment requirements for potential applicants; examine these requirements to determine if there are areas for improvement and, if any are found, take action to improve efficiency and timeliness with respect to application assessment and claims payment processes.

Management response

Management agrees with the evaluation recommendations and has developed an action plan to address them by December 2025.