VANCOUVER ISLAND REGION ADAPTATION STRATEGIES - PRIMEGOV
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Attachment B
Vancouver Island Region Adaptation Strategies
Strategy/Actions within Vancouver Island Strategies:
Winter Vegetable variety trials for climate resilience
STRATEGY 3.1
Create and share resources on farm practices, crop selection and low-cost technologies to
reduce climate risks
Action 3.1B
Provide information regarding crop selection
Action 3.1C
Support crop trials/research to determine crop viability under future conditions
Proposed Start and Completion Dates
May 2021 – mid-February 2023
Project Administrator
Islands Agriculture Show Society
Executive summary
Climate change is affecting growing conditions on Vancouver Island by shifting seasonal average
temperatures and precipitation patterns and increasing Growing Degree Days and growing
season length. Climate change is also increasing variability within and across production
seasons (e.g. timing of frosts, timing/quantity of precipitation). This brings risks but will also
bring opportunities presented by warmer average temperatures to produce novel commercial
crops. However, changing crops can be costly and risky.
Producers on Vancouver Island are accustomed to adjusting to variable seasonal growing
conditions and many producers experiment informally with new crops or crop varieties and
practices. The Strategies planning process confirmed that producers are interested in
experimenting with new crops both to diversify and to take advantage of favourable climate
related production opportunities. Through a recently completed project Crop trial and crop
suitability assessment for crop resilience several crop trialing priorities for Vancouver Island
producers were identified. For vegetable growers, identifying winter vegetable varieties that
can produce marketable crops in the field through the winter months was a high priority. There
was an additional interested in the potential of sweet potatoes to be added to operations. This
1project will select two winter crop types to conduct variety trials for using a mother-daughter
trial design in partnership with vegetable growers on Vancouver Island.
The first phase of the project will include engagement with key growers and project partners to
confirm the crops to be trialed; the previously completed project has made recommendations
that will require some ground truthing. Trial site partners will be confirmed, this will include a
single ‘mother’ site where multiple replications of the crop varieties will be grown and more
rigorous data collected as well as multiple (5-8) daughter sites that will represent a range of
farm types in the project area and will have single replicates of the crop varieties.
A range of data will be collected and there is opportunity to make use of existing trial software
(Seedlinked) that has been recommended for this project and has been utilized by others
conducting similar trial work in the region. Data collected may include crop vigour, disease/cold
resistance, yield, marketability, visual and eating quality and other parameters as determined
by the project partners.
Results from the crop trials will be compiled and shared with participating growers as well as
the broader farming community. A series of knowledge transfer activities will be supported
throughout the life of the project that could include field days, presentations at industry
events/virtually, a harvest event to assess crop qualities, and/or guides/fact sheets. In addition
to sharing project results there will be a focus on building interest and capacity in the grower
community for undertaking their own on-farm crop and variety trials.
A second year of crop trials will be supported that will be designed based on lessons learned in
the first year of trials and could include the addition of a sweet potato variety
trial/demonstration in the summer making using of existing grower partners. Crop varieties or
the crop included may be adjusted as needed and as is deemed valuable by the participant
farms, industry experts and project oversight committee.
At the end of the project a toolkit will be compiled to guide future crop trials in the region and a
final summary report completed to summarize the activities and results of the project.
Objectives:
• Evaluate a selection of winter-crop varieties for growing season extension
• Build capacity for producer-led and on-farm crop and variety trials
• Share results of the variety trials
• Build farm resilience to climate change through improved knowledge of productive
varieties
2Activities:
1) Project initiation (May 2021)
• Confirm crops (2) to be trialed through:
o Engagement with key agricultural producers (4-5)
o Engagement with seed suppliers
o Engagement with organizations who have conducted vegetable variety
trials on Vancouver Island or similar regions (e.g. CANOVI, Organic Seed
Alliance)
o Engagement with project oversight committee and Ministry of
Agriculture, Food and Fisheries regional agrologists
• Confirm ‘mother’ site for mother-daughter trial design, confirm potential
partnerships with local organizations/institutions (e.g. VIU & Nanaimo Foodshare,
others)
• Identify potential ‘daughter’ sites (5-8)
• Conduct meeting with project oversight committee to confirm project work plan
2) Finalize crop trial plan (May 2021)
• With input from project oversight committee, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and
Fisheries agrologist, industry experts and participating farms, confirm experimental
design:
o Crops (2) and varieties (>8) to be included
o Daughter sites
o Plot layouts and planting schedule
o Crop monitoring, data collection and harvest schedule
• Confirm data to be collected and methodology (e.g. paper, Seedlinked, other
software), this could include:
o Crop establishment/vigor
o Cold hardiness
o Yield
o Marketability/quality
o Eating quality
o Climate/weather data at trial sites
• Confirm knowledge transfer, this could include:
o Field days
o Crop harvest/eating event
o Results sharing/circulation within industry
o Materials/event on conducting on-farm variety trials
33) Implement and oversee crop trials (June 2021 – February 2022)
• Provide guidance daughter site growers and support plot layout, planting and crop
establishment as needed;
• Monitor and evaluate crop and variety performance across the mother and daughter
sites, collecting data as per crop trial plan;
• Coordinate crop harvests with growers and ensure collection and collation of all crop
data
4) Summary of results, year one evaluation and year two plan (February – March 2022)
• Generate a summary of crop trial results and distribute to participating growers and
through other industry organizations/partners;
• Evaluate the crop trials and highlight successes, challenges, and provide
recommendations for year two;
• Develop a crop trial plan for year two that builds on the results and makes changes
and additions as needed
o FUNDING/BUDGET ALLOWING: inclusion of a sweet potato variety
trial/production demonstration for summer 2022 that works with existing
grower partners to both assess sweet potato varieties and demonstrates best
practices for production on Vancouver Island farms
• Confirm year two crop trial with project oversight committee
5) Year two crop trials (May 2022 – February 2023)
• Replicate trials as per year two crop trial plan
6) Knowledge transfer activities (June 2021 – February 2023)
• Conduct knowledge transfer activities throughout the life of the project that:
o Demonstrate how to conduct on-farm variety trials
o Inform the producer community about the results of the variety trials
• Knowledge transfer activities could include:
o Field days
o Webinars
o Presentations at industry events (e.g. Islands Agriculture Show)
o Crop harvest event (including tasting, quality assessment, etc.)
o How-to guide/fact sheet
o Summary of trial results
7) Final project summary report (February 2023)
4• Draft a final project summary report that includes:
o Recommendations for future vegetable crop and variety trials,
demonstration and research for Vancouver Island that includes regional
needs, recommended methods and compiles potential
collaborators/partners
o Summarizes the completion of the project with results and date from the
crop trials
• Engage with project oversight committee to review and provide input on project
materials and finalize all deliverables
Project Deliverables
• Project oversight committee meetings
• Project work plan
• Crop trial plan (year one & year two)
• Year one results summary & evaluation
• Knowledge transfer activities
• VI crop trial toolkit
• Final summary report
Communications plan
• Producers and other experts (beyond the VI working group and project oversight
committee) will be engaged during the project via engagement and participation.
• Within the project timeline, results summaries will be delivered to project partners and
relevant agricultural organizations.
• Working Group members will be relied upon to engage the various Farmers’ Institutes
that they represent.
• Project findings and results could be shared at a future Island Agriculture Show or at a
future Farmer to Farmer meeting.
Performance plan
Near-term performance indicators:
• Number of farmers and industry experts engage with trial planning
• Number of farms involved in crop trials
• Distribution of trial results and recommendations
• Delivery of knowledge transfer activities
• Engagement in project oversight committee and number of meetings
Medium to long-term performance indicators (beyond project timeline/scope):
5• Improved variety selection by Vancouver Island farmers
• Undertaking of variety trials by individual farms
• Continued variety trials conducted by industry organizations informed by project
recommendations
• Producer confidence in experimenting with recommended crops types or varieties.
• On-going use of and reference to final project deliverables.
Potential Project Partners
• Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries
• Islands Agriculture Show
• Alberni Farmers’ Institute
• Cowichan Agricultural Society
• Comox Valley Farmers’ Institute
• Mid-island Farmers Institute
• Canadian Organic Vegetable Crop Improvement Trials Network
• Economic Development Cowichan
• Educational Institutions (e.g. VIU)
• Agriculture producer cooperators
• BC Agriculture and Climate Adaptation Research Network (BC-ACARN)
• BC Seeds (Bauta Initiative on Canadian Seed Security)
• Community Organizations (e.g. Nanaimo Foodshare, Cowichan Agricultural Seed Hub)
• Seed Companies (e.g. West Coast Seeds; BC Eco-seed Co-op)
Budget
Estimated Cost
Estimated total cost: $48,950 - $54,450
Canadian Agricultural Partnership: $41,250
Partnering Organizations: $10,000 - $15,000
Workplan summary and cost
Items Budget Timeline
Project initiation $2,000 May 2021
Finalize crop trial plan $3,000 May 2021
Implement and oversee 2021 crop trials $10,000 June 2021 – February
2022
6Summary of results, year one $3,500 February – March 2022
evaluation and year two plan
Implement and oversee 2022 crop trials $10,000 May 2022 – February 2023
Sweet potato trials & demonstration $5,000 May 2022 – February 2023
(TBD)
Knowledge transfer activities $6,000 June 2021 – February
2023
Final project summary report & crop $4,000 February 2023
trial toolkit
Materials/honorariums $6,000
Sub-total $44,500 - $49,500
Administration (10%) $4,450 - $4,950
TOTAL BUDGET $48,950 - $54,450
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