This brings us to the heart of the matter, which is how to adapt our current programs. Although essential, risk management programs were designed for another era. The safety net paradoxically encourages producers to maintain climate-vulnerable farming practices, such as monoculture. Conversely, producers who practise crop diversification, an agronomic practice that's recognized for reducing input use and stabilizing yields, are not rewarded.
On the other hand, research shows promising results on adapting programs to encourage good practices. In Saskatchewan, they have a program that covers up to 30% of farmland that uses diversification practices, thereby encouraging experimentation with new approaches, such as intercropping. In Quebec, there's a pilot project that reduces the insurance premium by 5% for winter soil cover of 75%. These are just two examples. The complete list is available in our 40‑page report.
Here are our four main recommendations for the next strategic framework. First, we recommend integrating soil health into actuarial risk assessment. We recommend looking at introducing advanced soil diagnostics to the list of eco-conditionality measures and modernizing digital data collection by provincial agencies.
Second, we recommend protecting and funding innovation. It's known that innovation involves a certain degree of risk. Farms experimenting with new soil conservation practices should have access to specialized insurance that protects them from losses. Furthermore, an enormous amount of support is needed for agricultural research.
Third, we recommend financially rewarding proactive risk reduction with premium discounts or enhanced coverage for good practices.
Fourth, we recommend supporting short channels and combatting food waste. Crop insurance must stop conditioning farmers to expect compensation for totally abandoning a damaged field, so that imperfect products can be harvested for food banks. Reference prices must also stop penalizing producers who choose to sell using short distribution channels.
In conclusion, changing our risk management programs is not solely an environmental concern. It has become an essential condition to ensure the economic survival of our farms.
We thank you for your attention. We will be pleased to answer your questions.