August 17, 2023
From merciless droughts that starve the land of precious water to erratic weather patterns that unleash violent storms upon fragile crops, the impacts of climate change on agriculture have become an undeniable reality. The interplay of rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events has plunged farmers into an uncertain future. As we grapple with the impact of climate change on agriculture, the question arises: How can we adapt and innovate to safeguard our food security in the face of this formidable challenge?
One approach that was launched in the past year was Genome Canada’s $30M challenge-driven genomics research and innovation initiative called Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems (CSAFS). The program is funding a portfolio of interdisciplinary projects and establishing two national coordination hubs – one for data and the other for knowledge mobilization and implementation. The projects will bring together integrated teams of researchers from various disciplines to address specific climate and agriculture-related challenges with the goal of reducing the carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions of Canada’s agriculture and food systems.
Meanwhile, the hubs will develop and implement plans for sharing data and discoveries, allowing results from one project to be translated and adapted for other food production systems or supply chains, cascading the impact of new findings throughout the broader food system.
Addressing the impacts that climate change is having on the health of BC’s agricultural and natural resources will require a multi-faceted set of solutions. Genome BC is currently supporting many projects working towards sustainable agrifood systems and natural resources. The most recent come from the new Genomics Innovation for Regenerative Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (GIRAFF) program — a partnership between Genome BC and the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC (IAF) to support the BC agriculture, food and fisheries sectors. Eight projects have been funded to develop new tools and approaches that will help these sectors mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Among other outcomes, these projects will:
- Investigate patterns in how cereal pathogens move into Canada to contribute to the Canadian early-warning system for producers.
- Create tools to predict the current climate resilience of Chinook Salmon stocks and their capacity for increased tolerance of events, such as heatwaves, and identify which salmon stocks are most resilient to temperature variation.
- Model how climate change will affect nutritional stress and disease in bees, to help BC beekeepers, crop growers and policymakers prepare and take preventative steps to mitigate future impacts.
Moving from agriculture to natural resources, the impacts of climate change equally jeopardize the health, ecological integrity and biodiversity of our forests. Genomics research is being applied to caring for the health of the whole forest, from projects studying the soil microbiome to the trees towering overhead to the animals below. Adaptation and mitigation strategies can inform sustainable forestry, such as selecting genetic variants that are more resilient and can withstand anticipated climate change impacts.
Finding the right path to a future unencumbered by climate change devastation will require increased collaboration and a thoughtful, considered approach. Genome BC has continued its efforts to establish an interdisciplinary research and policy centre. Once instituted, this centre will provide a collaboration space for researchers from multiple disciplines to generate new ideas, build partnerships, tackle pressing policy issues and pursue innovative solutions, initially in the area of biodiversity and conservation.
In the face of escalating challenges brought about by climate change on agriculture and natural resources, the imperative for innovative solutions and collaborative efforts has become clear. Programs like CSAFS and GIRAFF are actively driving cutting edge research and partnerships creating a path forward that will identify genomic solutions to some of these critical challenges and inform future funding opportunities. By leveraging genomics, these initiatives are fostering knowledge sharing, developing new tools, identifying genetic variants that can withstand the challenges of climate change and providing answers to the question of how we can adapt and overcome this challenge.
This article appears in Genome BC’s 2022/23 Annual Report. View the whole report here.
