How Does Climate Change Affect Farming?

Mobilizing Alberta is an initiative aimed at increasing engagement on climate change across Southern Alberta. Through Climate Action Grants, a Climate Conversation Speaker Series, and the Preparing Albertans for Climate Change e-course, Mobilizing Alberta provides a foundation on which Albertans can build awareness and support meaningful climate action. Over the next few months, we’ll share a series of informative blog posts to answer frequently asked questions, clear up common misconceptions, and break down climate solutions in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way.

Continuing the series, we’re exploring the impact that climate change has, and will have, on farming and agriculture.

Climate change is affecting farming in Canada. It’s causing extreme weather events like floods, droughts, and heatwaves, which disrupt growing seasons and affect crop yields.

A warming climate and higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have resulted in longer growing seasons, but the challenges this brings outweigh the benefits. Climate change has increased photosynthesis and made watering crops efficiently more difficult. Agricultural pests and diseases spread more easily, and livestock has higher mortality rates. Up against these new obstacles, farmers are finding it more difficult to produce food sustainably and protect their livelihoods.

The scientific community agrees, based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that our climate will grow warmer with more extreme weather events. Already, annual and mean temperatures across Canada have increased, with the greatest warming occurring in the winter. Between 1946 and 2016, estimates show mean annual temperatures for Canada as a whole have increased 1.7°C, and the north of Canada has increased by 2.3°C.

This increase in temperature has increased the likelihood of some kinds of extreme weather events, including wildfires, flooding, hailstorms, and tornadoes. It’s also likely we’ll experience droughts more often — and with more intensity — in the future, especially across the southern Prairies and in British Columbia. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Alberta has already warmed by 1.9°C since the mid-1990s, and is expected to continue to warm at a rate two to three times higher than the global rate.

Agriculture is not only a critical part of our economy — it’s critical to our survival. Farming and the climate are linked closely together. In a recent poll, 76% of farmers say they’ve been directly affected by severe weather in the past five years. In an open-ended question in the same poll, they named climate change as the top challenge for the sector over the next decade.

Canada is a huge country — the second largest by land mass — so climate change affects different regions in different ways. For the prairie provinces, climate change is a major concern; this region accounts for over 80% of our agricultural land, and the region is warming at a rate faster than the global average.

Weather and seasonal patterns in the region have become far less consistent — hotter and drier summers and wetter and milder winters. Variable first and last frost dates make seeding and harvesting a challenge. Changes in precipitation patterns mean farmers struggle to manage water resources — areas that previously had enough water may end up relying on irrigation systems, or as other areas become wetter, farmers must delay seeding. Delayed seeding means a shorter growing season, which can affect the yield and quality of crops.

In Alberta, experts predict a pattern of heavier storms with longer dry periods in between.

While this might result in slightly higher total rainfall, the overall effect may be more damaging than consistent, lighter precipitation over weeks, because the ground absorbs less of the moisture from intense storms after a long dry spell. Soil can also become saturated more quickly, increasing the risk of flooding.

In Western Canada in 2021, a series of extreme climate disasters —  including extreme heat, drought, and forest fires, followed swiftly by unprecedented rainfall, landslides, and flooding — wreaked havoc on food production. Wheat production plummeted by 35% and canola by 14%, 1.3 million farm animals died, and 80% of commercial shellfish stocks were wiped out in a massive die-off.

Alberta’s top exports — canola, wheat, and beef — are all susceptible to the effects of climate change. Over time, reduced crop yields, increased pests and diseases, and less productive livestock could affect Alberta’s viability as an exporter. If quality declines, demand for Alberta’s products will, too.

Adapting farming practices to a changing climate

By necessity, farmers are often at the forefront of adopting new strategies to manage changing conditions. Faced with a set of challenges that threatens their livelihood, many have embraced new techniques to help protect yields and crop quality, as well as mitigate agriculture’s impact on the environment.

Adaptation measures include an increased reliance on irrigation, changes in seasonal seeding and sowing dates, planting new crop varieties, and considering new methods of fire management.

When it comes to mitigation, Farmers for Climate Solutions lays out a roadmap for the Canadian agriculture sector that strives to reduce emissions by 14% through climate-friendly practices, including:

• Nitrogen management, which strives to reduce carbon emissions through the more efficient and effective use of fertilizers and nitrogen-producing organic matter.
• Soil management, through cover cropping or intercropping, helps reduce the need for fertilizers and increases the soil’s ability to capture carbon. Cover cropping involves planting a crop that “covers” the soil in between cash crops, which increases the soil’s health. These cover crops are not harvested — instead, they’re left on the field to decay, and their biomass adds nutrients to the soil.
• Livestock management strategies, including grazing rotations, increased grazing periods, and planting more legumes in pastureland. These strategies can  help reduce methane emissions from grazing livestock and improve carbon sequestration in soil.

Resources for farmers

Farmers who want to learn more about climate action can start with these organizations and resources:

• Alberta Environmental Farm Plan is a voluntary, whole-farm self-assessment tool that helps producers identify their environmental risks and develop plans to mitigate identified risks.
• Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS)  helps farmers and ranchers build nature-based solutions on their land.
• Regenerative Agriculture Lab offers a series of workshops, interactive tools and peer-to-peer learning moments on regenerative agriculture practices.
• Rural Routes to Climate Solutions is a “made in Alberta” organization that “helps agricultural producers and rural communities discover the benefits of climate solutions…beyond reducing emissions to improving soil health, creating new economic opportunities, protecting biodiversity and strengthening resilience against droughts and floods.”
• The Canadian Alliance for Net-Zero Agri-food (CANZA) partners with farmers to help work towards a net-zero agri-food system for Canada, helping ensure food security as our nation grows. 
• Farmers for Climate Solutions is a national coalition led by farmers and ranchers that aims to support farmers’ bottom lines and Canada’s climate goals, and offer farmers free farmer-to-farmer learning resources to support the adoption of low emission, high resilience practices.