Thanks, everyone.
I'm Frank Annau, the director of product stewardship for Fertilizer Canada. We represent manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers in nitrogen phosphate, potash and sulphur fertilizers. Thank you for the invitation to appear and to speak today.
We believe that voluntary industry-led initiatives that put farms at the centre are the best approach to reduce nutrient runoff. To that end, we have been heavily involved with implementing 4R nutrient stewardship across Canada. This 4R approach has helped farmers apply the right source of fertilizer at the right rate and the right place at the right time.
The resulting efficient use of fertilizer and nutrient use efficiency increases both cost savings and crop yields. Applying fertilizer in the right place with the right weather conditions also ensures it stays in the field and out of waterways.
For example, in Ontario, 4R corn production practices can reduce phosphorus runoff by up to 60%. In a Saskatchewan cereal-oilseed-pulse rotation, this reduction could be as high as 75%.
These numbers are provided by our 4R Research Network, a group of leading research scientists at the universities across Canada who help determine best practices for different growing regions. This knowledge is then shared with farmers by Canadian crop advisers, or CCAs, who participate in our 4R programming, which has two tracks: 4R designation and 4R certification.
The 4R-designated CCAs provide recommendations to farmers and create a 4R management plan. Acres under advisement are then reported back to Fertilizer Canada and aggregated across the country. As of 2022, we had 8.5 million acres under 4R designation towards our five-year goal of 14 million by 2025.
The 4R certification is built off the same foundation but is verified by third party auditing and is currently run in Ontario. Audits require documented evidence to show that CCAs have worked with farms to identify minimum setbacks for surface water, inlets and wells, and that they have collected on-farm data to show reasonable expectation of no increased risk to water quality.
The 4R certification standards were drafted in 2018 by our steering committee as part of a voluntary initiative to improve the western Lake Erie basin. One of the key goals is to create long-term positive impacts on water bodies associated with agriculture, including reducing eutrophication and helping to meet water quality standards. These efforts support the Canada-Ontario Lake Erie action plan, which features 4R in its approach to reduce water phosphorus levels by 40% below 2008 levels.
We are pleased to report that 1.8 million of 9 million total arable acres in Ontario are under 4R certification as of 2022. This exceeds our goal of one million acres by 2025. Combined with 4R designation, that's approximately 11 million acres under 4R advisement across Canada, towards our five-year goal of 15 million acres by 2025. We also recently hit the 500 mark of 4R-designated CCAs to provide guidance.
However, we can always improve. Our annual fertilizer use survey shows 56% of growers self-report these basic 4R practices. However, only 30% are where they already use 4R principles, and only 7% have 4R plans that are signed by a CCA.
The cost of initial implementation also remains one of the top barriers to wider adoption. To overcome this barrier, we believe that a 4R climate-smart protocol should be adopted by Canada's greenhouse gas offset system. This would allow farms to generate and sell credits for 4R practices that reduce emissions and would have the co-benefits of reducing runoff. In turn, this would generate revenue for farms, reduce implementation costs and increase demand for 4R guidance. The on-farm climate action fund has already upticked that demand, and a national protocol would push it even higher.
In response, we believe government support could help accelerate 4R training for crop advisers to provide the needed guidance. We have already invested $2 million in developing and running 4R programming since 2018, and this is on top of the tens of millions invested in identifying and demonstrating best practices in R and D. Our pre-budget submission this year requests an additional $2 million in government funding to aid in these efforts.
We have also advocated these solutions to the sustainable agriculture advisory committee, where I co-chair the fertilizer emissions reduction working group. I'm pleased to report that the working group on soil health and water has also identified advanced nutrient management in its recommendations.
We have also engaged AAFC on the UN's global biodiversity framework under target 7 to reduce the risk of nutrient runoff. We were very pleased to see 4R featured in its recent “what we heard” report on Canada's 2030 biodiversity strategy consultation and we look forward to further collaboration.
Just to close, our 2021 consult on the Canada water agency also had three key recommendations: to recognize the standard of 4R stewardship, to support market-based incentives for growers and to align with provincial management plans that feature 4R, such as the Manitoba climate and green plan and the Prairie resilience plan.
Thank you again for this opportunity to speak. I would be happy to take any questions.