Resources Management & Environment Research Program

Research > Conduct Research > OMAFRA > Resources Management & Environment Research Program > Priorities

Priorities

Priority 1 - Enhancing agro-ecosystem resiliency/stability/productivity

Priority 1.1

Evaluations of how changing crop rotations and/or residue removal for bioproducts
or on-farm energy production (e.g. used in anaerobic digestors, biomass combustion) impact on crop productivity, demand for and fate of nutrients and pesticides, soil ecology, nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration in Ontario

Priority 1.2

Life cycle comparisons of bioproduct and alternative production systems to conventional production systems considering economics, GHG emissions, water use and quality, soil quality, pathogen and nutrients losses, land base, energy, input and transport requirements, etc.

Priority 1.3

Measures, benchmarks and thresholds of agro-ecosystem resiliency, stability and productivity to monitor and evaluate impacts of practices and policies and to respond to drivers like climate change and intensification (greater production per unit land area)

Priority 1.4

Evaluation of environmental impacts of production systems under predicted climate change scenarios. Assessment of changes that could be made to recommendations and best management practices to adapt to climate change

Priority 1.5

Definition and delineation of the agricultural landscape to accommodate and optimize multi-functionality including production, habitat and water cycling (e.g. area of wetlands required for a particular function). Determination of the impacts of shifting production to marginal lands versus intensification and evaluation of the potential resource base for bioproduct and food production.

Priority 1.6

Methods to acquire develop and analyze agro-ecosystem resource databases (soil, water, air and biodiversity) cost-effectively to provide integrated resource inventories and measures against which to assess change and long term sustainability at different scales. Assessment of the means and policies for data sharing and availability to realize benefits to agriculture, food and bioproduct sectors and rural communities.

Priority 1.7

Determination of value and cost effectiveness of enhanced monitoring and modeling options for improved resource inventories and interpretations of environmental change brought about through policy and practice implementation.

Priority 1.8

Improved methods for and monitoring of agro-ecosystem processes over winter (i.e. nutrient and pathogen dynamics, gaseous losses) to validate models and make improvements to recommendations (e.g. tradeoffs between spring versus fall manure application).

Priority 1.9

Determination of how the variability of the landscape impacts on the efficiency of the farm and farming practices. Determination of the environmental and economic advantages to adopting site specific, real time monitoring or other specialized approaches to managing inputs and practices.

Priority 1.10

Understanding of how and what level of crop, livestock and other biodiversity contributes to the resiliency, stability, and productivity of the agro-ecosystem.

Priority 2 - Improving water quantity supply and quality

Priority 2.1

Determination of the sensitivities of different agricultural production and food processing systems to water restrictions. Experimental analysis of scenario impacts of various water supply rules. Determination of the environmental and economic impacts of water restrictions to agri-food production (e.g. impacts of less soil cover, residual nutrients) compared to other water uses

Priority 2.2

Development of a widely applicable methodology for identifying and mapping portions of fields and subcatchments in rural watersheds that constitute critical source areas for i) surface runoff, stream sediments and associated contaminants, and ii) groundwater recharge, with particular attention given to winter and spring runoff conditions.

Priority 2.3

Improved knowledge of seasonal and variable source area hydrology that can be used to develop, evaluate and validate management methods, such as riparian buffers, to control the transport of sediment, nutrients and pathogen

Priority 2.4

Assessment of the potential for and impacts of various policy, formal and informal administrative arrangements and technologies for water management to overcome water supply constraints in Ontario for agricultural production and food processing (e.g. water storage ponds, scheduling on shared systems, water re-use)

Priority 2.5

Improved understanding of agricultural drain ecosystems and functions so that field and rural municipal drains can be designed and managed to improve water availability and quality while retaining production benefits. Determination of the impacts of tile drainage on source area hydrology and groundwater recharge quantity and quality

Priority 2.6

Validation of best technical and economically affordable water efficiency measures and water use coefficients for agricultural production and food processing. Linked to #4.

Priority 2.7

New technologies for identifying and tracking persistence (or survival in the case of pathogens) and transport of agricultural contaminants to support understanding of on-farm hydrologic pathways and evaluation of management practices. Linked to #4.

Priority 3 - Managing air emissions from the agri-food system

Priority 3.1

Evaluation and validation of strategies and technologies to cost-effectively reduce odours, greenhouse gases, ammonia and particulate matter emissions from agricultural production and food processing

Priority 3.2

Validation of coefficients and parameters used in models estimating point and non-point air emissions and transport from agricultural production and food processing. Particular concern for emissions from livestock production and manure use, and fertilizer and agrochemical use.

Priority 3.3

Quantification of the impact on human/worker health and animal health of practices to reduce air emissions from livestock facilities

Priority 4 - Developing, evaluating and validating Best Management Practices (BMPs)

Priority 4.1

Evaluation and validation of BMP/system effectiveness for multiple pathways, contaminants and purposes to determine additive or contradictory effects of different practices. Evaluation at different scales to determine and confirm both on-farm benefit and extrapolation to broader environmental and societal improvements. Linked to #5.

Priority 4.2

Determination of the incremental benefits and cost of additional practices to most cost-effectively deploy/recommend BMPs for greatest environmental and production benefit. Potential areas of study include: how to best deploy BMPs to manage sensitive delivery areas and concentrated flows, how to best treat high volume, low nutrient effluents (e.g. greenhouse effluent, washwaters) for different end points (re-use, direct discharge, land application, sanitary sewer) and how to most cost-effectively monitor, manage and reduce pathogens while considering nutrient and other implications.

Priority 4.3

Evaluation of producer behaviour and willingness to adopt BMPs and implications for policy and program development

Priority 4.4

New methods and systems for nutrient recommendations that can better account for availability of nutrients from soil organic matter and land applied organic materials, environmental concerns, product quality and safety, and synchrony of release from organic sources and uptake by crops, in addition to most economic yields.

Priority 4.5

Methods and tools to characterize organic materials and agricultural landscapes in order to assess risk (to soil, water, air, biodiversity and food safety) and recommend management options for land application of these materials

Priority 5 - Capturing added environmental/societal value from agricultural production and the agricultural landscape

Priority 5.1

Definition and measurement of magnitude and distribution of benefits to private and public interests of different systems/practices at different locations and scales

Priority 5.2

Tools and measures to verify environmental goods and services provision in the agricultural landscape.

Priority 5.3

Determination of the value of private versus public benefit, how these values vary by location and system, and how these differences could affect policy and program development.

Priority 5.4

Assessment of the societal willingness to compensate agricultural producers for environmental goods and services by different mechanisms. Evaluation of producer behaviour and willingness to deliver environmental goods and services.

Priority 5.5

Comparison of governance mechanisms and capacities required to implement an environmental goods and services policy for agricultural production in Ontario