PROJECT SUMMARY

The objective of this project is to enhance agricultural producers’ capacity to successfully cope with climate change as it relates to agricultural water management, by incorporating climate change adaptations and strategies into the design and development of their agricultural drainage works and into the mitigation conditions of their drainage approval. The Water Security Agency recognizes that to increase the number of agricultural drainage works brought into compliance requires improving agricultural producers’ knowledge and understanding about agricultural water management and climate change. Key topics that will be included in the landowner education program include:

• impacts of agricultural drainage;
• regulatory requirements of the agricultural water management program;
• climate change and the associated risks of flood and drought on agricultural production and water management; and
• the need to adapt and build climate change resilience into agricultural water management.

A second component of the project focuses on capacity building of trained professionals to work as qualified professionals. It consists of developing an adult education program to support agrologists and applied science technologists working with the agriculture industry to effectively mitigate the impacts of agricultural water management and to incorporate future climate projections into agricultural water management decision making.