Request for Proposals: Supporting farmer and rancher adoption of low emissions, high resilience Beneficial Management Practices through field trials
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Have questions about the FaRM Field Trials Program? Register for a Q&A session below. Our team will be there to answer your questions.INTRODUCTION
Farmers for Climate Solutions
Farmers for Climate Solutions (FCS) is a national farmer and rancher led coalition that advances pragmatic policy and program solutions to support farmers and ranchers in making the transition to low emissions, high resilience approaches to agriculture.
FaRM Program
The Farm Resilience Mentorship (FaRM) Program began in 2021 as a peer-to-peer, regionally adaptive, education and knowledge sharing program to support farmers and ranchers in adopting low emissions, high resilience Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs), specifically:
Improved Nitrogen Management
Cover Cropping
Rotational Grazing
Through partnerships with organizations across the country, FaRM has supported over 500 in-person and virtual learning events, with farmers and ranchers, agrologists, agronomists, Certified Crop Advisers and agricultural researchers as knowledge sharers at these events. The free program also includes the FaRM Learning Hub where farmers, ranchers and agronomists can take online self-directed courses to build their knowledge on how to adapt BMPs to their farm or ranch. So far, FaRM has reached over 10,000 farmers and ranchers across the country, representing 8-12 million acres.
Cross-country sector consultations have noted that there is not enough regional data on some of the BMPs and producers and agronomists are hesitant to implement practices without local, regional data to support them.
89% of farmers and ranchers responding to the 2024 FaRM Impact Survey indicated that they had implemented, expanded, and/or enhanced a BMP to some extent as a result of participating in the FaRM Program, with an additional 11% of farmer/rancher respondents indicating that they had yet to undertake a BMP, but intended to.
FaRM Field Trials Program
The FaRM Field Trials Program is focused on increasing regional support and knowledge transfer in low emissions, high resilience BMPs by engaging agricultural professionals, in partnership with farmers and ranchers, to run field trials.
The goal of the FaRM Field Trials Program is to grow high resilience, low emission BMP Extension capacity across Canada. We want to provide agricultural professionals (e.g. agronomists, agrologists, Certified Crop Advisers), farmers, and ranchers the opportunity to to build on-farm resilience, improve soil health and enhance on-farm profitability while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This initiative seeks to specifically support:
Overcoming regional barriers to BMP implementation, and
Troubleshooting BMP adoption through practical, hands-on experience.
This is the first intake with a targeted start date of late summer/early fall 2025. This call is targeting fall activities and encompasses one full growing season, with all trial activities to be completed soon after fall 2026. A second intake will launch in January 2026 with a targeted start date of spring 2026.
This funding represents an exciting opportunity for agricultural professionals to conduct field trials and work with us to develop solutions that directly address local challenges–increasing farm resilience, improving soil health, reducing emissions, and enhancing on-farm profitability!
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
To encourage the adoption of BMPs (cover cropping, improved N management, rotational grazing) resulting in improved on-farm resilience, improved soil health, and enhanced on-farm profitability while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
To build familiarity and comfort in these BMPs with farmers, ranchers, and agricultural professionals.
To provide opportunities to troubleshoot and overcome regional barriers to BMP adoption.
To generate regionally relevant on-farm technical data.
To develop on-farm economic analyses on these three BMPs to assist producers and agricultural professionals in decision-making.
To build stronger regional and cross-country networks among agricultural professionals and between professionals and producers.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
This program is primarily intended for Canadian agricultural professionals, such as a professional agrologist (P.Ag), Agronomes (QC), or Certified Crop Advisers (CCA), however other professionals with relevant experience are welcome to apply.
You must apply in partnership with at least one participating farmer and/or rancher.
You must be a Canadian organization, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident currently operating and residing in Canada and able to enter into a legally binding agreement.
FUNDING AMOUNT
Up to $20,000 per project.
As a key project objective is to grow Extension capacity across Canada, projects that propose the inclusion to hire and mentor a junior agronomist (graduated in the last five years) or an agronomist from an underrepresented group* in Canadian agriculture are eligible for an additional $10,000 to cover training, mentoring, and junior agronomist wages (for a total project cost of $30,000).
*The term underrepresented is understood by FCS as: Young agronomists, women agronomists, agronomists with disabilities, Black agronomists, Indigenous agronomists and food providers, agronomists of colour, 2SLGBTQ+ agronomists, and new Canadian agronomists.
KEY DELIVERABLES
Design and execute a scientifically robust field trial(s) incorporating 1 or more of the BMPs.
Write a Field Trial Report for widespread publication through FaRM channels. Field Trial Report must include a Producer’s Perspective section (details below) and a partial budget analysis.
Host in-person on-farm knowledge transfer event and collect participant information.
Participate in evaluation activities that may include a group reflection with other Field Trial participants and/or a brief survey.
1. Run Field Trial
Design and execute a scientifically robust field trial(s) that addresses overcoming a regional barrier to BMP implementation. Greater weight will be given to field trials demonstrating scientific rigour, e.g. a trial that has four replicates will be weighted more favourably than a split-field trial design. OSCIA has put together a fantastic resource for their ONFARM program called “How to Conduct On-Farm Research Guidebook”, which has great tips that can be useful across multiple regions and production types.
If you would like to discuss experimental design or research methodology, please do not hesitate to reach out to Rosalie Gillis-Madden, FaRM Program Manager at rosalie@farmersforclimatesolutions.ca.
Field trials are to be implemented on-farm in partnership between agricultural professionals and farmers/ranchers. Our intention is to support trials using field-sized equipment: plot-sized projects are not eligible.
“New practice" should be compared to a control or Business as Usual.
Collect and record data on BMP (e.g. yield, stand counts, ground cover, etc.). Sufficient data must be collected to elaborate on successes and challenges.
Collect economic data pertinent to the trialed practices in order to develop a partial budget analysis.
Some examples of potential field trials:
Fall cover crop seeding dates, evaluating “how late is too late”.
Evaluating nutrient use efficiency and profitability of Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers (EEFs included are urease inhibitors, nitrification inhibitors, or poly-coated urea) using 4R practices. (NB: EEF treatment must also include a decreased rate to account for the increased efficiency as a check).
Evaluating different cover crop termination methods to manage residue.
Grazing cover crop blends for season extension.
2. Field Trial Report and Extension materials
All trials are expected to have a Field Trial Report submitted at the end of the contract term highlighting the successes and challenges of BMP implementation (e.g. what worked, what didn’t work, what applicants might change in the future, etc.). A template will be provided to you. We encourage you to think about potential risks for conducting your trial and develop risk management strategies to try to minimize that risk. We also want to acknowledge that often as much learning happens from things that go wrong, as from things that go well–we encourage you to be willing to share your mistakes and failures and what was learned from them.
The report will be used to publicly share project objectives, data, and outcomes in formats such as the FaRM Learning Hub or FaRM’s soon-to-announced Extension Journal (official name TBA).
The report must include the following 4 elements:
Completed report narrative (template provided by FCS).
As peer-to-peer learning is a cornerstone of the FaRM program, the report must feature a Producer’s Perspective section. This first-person story telling can be submitted as an article, video, or audio file.
Partial budget analysis. Partial budgets focus on the differences in benefits and costs between the new practice (e.g. cover cropping) and the baseline practice (e.g. not cover cropping). The partial budget analysis allows you to consider the net return of adoption, or net change in farm income, so
Net Return = Change in Benefits - Change in Costs
Some sample partial budget analyses for cover crops are available on the FaRM Learning Hub under the mini-course “Economics of Cover Cropping”.
Photos are required to be included in the final report, videos are also welcome.
Other Extension materials are welcomed and encouraged (e.g. podcast, instructional YouTube video, factsheet, infographic, etc.).
3. Organize knowledge transfer event
An on-farm event (i.e. field day, workshop, etc.) featuring the field trial is expected as part of this funding where neighboring farmers are encouraged to come and see the trial and share their experiences. Suggested topics include: what is the barrier to BMP implementation that the field trial is targeting, why is it a barrier, what worked, what didn’t work, what would you do differently next time, what would you do the same. The target audience is farmers, ranchers, and agricultural professionals in the region.
Include FCS Terms of Use and Privacy Statement in event registration process and at events.
Collect email addresses from participants at field days for submission to the FaRM team so we can administer an annual Impact Survey in late-November to event participants.
This survey measures “impact”, so whether the knowledge/experience gained actually resulted in changes in practice on the farm, and other longer term outcomes. This also collects information on barriers to adoption and identifies other needed supports which in turn informs our policy work.
This voluntary survey also gives us some data on the types of farms we’re reaching with our work to ensure we are reaching our target audience.
Log event data into Event Tracking spreadsheet (provided and monitored by FCS) detailing date, event description, number and type of participants (e.g. farmers, agronomists, etc.) in attendance.
Acknowledge and promote the FaRM Program and Learning Hub at events and in all communications related to this project.
The FaRM Program has a regional newsletter that reaches over 1800 recipients. Applicants must share event details six weeks in advance of the event date so that we can help publicize your on-farm event. FaRM will also happily connect applicants to our existing regional partners to help promote the event within their networks.
Additional forms of knowledge mobilization are also welcome, such as podcasts, YouTube videos, conference presentations, webinars, etc., we just ask that you let us know so that we can help spread the word and track impact!
If creating additional learning materials (i.e.podcast, video, etc.):
Provide file/link to FCS to post on the FaRM Learning Hub.
Provide FCS with download/click numbers at the end of the contract term.
EXPENSES
Eligible expenses
Salaries and wages.
Field Trial costs (e.g. seed, fertilizer, flags, specialized equipment rental, etc.).
Some equipment >$500 is eligible with pre-approval by FaRM staff.
Knowledge transfer event costs (including venue, audio-visual rentals, supplies and materials, etc.).
Stipend to cover producer time (suggested $50/hr) or to cover possible crop loss (e.g. in a 0 lbs N/acre control); highly recommended.
Contracted services (soil and tissue testing, feed analysis, custom operator, etc.).
Travel related to Field Trial (mileage, accommodation).
Administration (12% max).
Ineligible expenses
Capital costs (building improvements, office furniture/equipment, field trial/farm equipment over $500 unless prior approval from FaRM staff, computers, projectors, etc.).
Alcohol.
Finance charges, loan interest payments, bank fees and charges.
EXPECTED TIMELINE FOR SUBMISSION
The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2025.
We will aim to notify you if your proposal has been accepted by Aug 1, 2025.
Our goal is to have contracts signed by August 15, 2025.
CONTACT
Should you have any questions about eligibility, project design and execution or other, please reach out to Rosalie Gillis-Madden at rosalie@farmersforclimatesolutions.ca.
Join our office hour Q&A sessions.
Have questions about the FaRM Field Trials Program? Register for a Q&A session below. Our team will be there to answer your questions.APPLICATION FORM
Please complete the following form by June 15, 2025.
A document version of the form is available here for download. This is provided as your working copy. All final applications need to be submitted via the online form.
SCORING MATRIX
Applications will be scored based on the following criteria:
Alignment with program eligibility and objectives, as defined above (20%).
Strength of the project proposal (30%).
Field trial objectives are clear, barrier(s) to BMP implementation is clearly defined.
The project will have large impact (e.g., # of producers reached, geographical range of the barrier, etc.).
Details agronomically viable approach(es) to overcome said barrier.
Clearly detailed experimental design showing scientific rigour (10%), such as,
A replicated trial will be weighted more favourably than a split-field trial design.
Clearly define treatments with a control.
A trial measuring multiple key response variables will be weighted more favourably than a trial that only measures one response variable.
Clearly detailed knowledge transfer plan (20%).
Resources to execute the project effectively (20%).
Past trial experience.
Knowledge transfer experience.
Reach within agricultural community.
Letter of support from farmer/rancher.
Budget aligns with activities and is reasonable.