Climate change is driving severe global and regional disruptions that undermine agricultural productivity and threaten the stability of farming systems. In British Columbia (BC), increasingly frequent heatwaves, drought, flooding, and wildfires are intensifying risks to water availability, crop performance, farmers’ livelihoods, and long-term food security. Farmers and policymakers in Canada lack sufficient economic evidence at both the field and farm scales to evaluate adaptive management options that apply climate smart, organic, and regenerative practices. This thesis study developed a decision-support tool to help BC farmers evaluate the economic outcomes of climate-resilient nutrient amendment practices by estimating relative profit impacts of adaptive management options. A mixed-methods approach was utilized for this study. Individual and group interviews with farmers and agricultural researchers informed the development of an economic assessment model. Principles of crop budgeting and cost-benefit analysis were applied to the model to develop a customizable calculator tool. Model effectiveness was evaluated using a test dataset from ongoing nutrient management studies at two BC farms over three growing seasons. Test results for eight in-field experiments including profit and relative economic performance outcomes, were shared back with farm staff in group feedback sessions to inform model evaluation. The study demonstrated that the cost-benefit model could estimate farm profits and evaluate economic relative performance of different adaptive management options in the short and medium term, although farm economics are extremely context-specific. Capturing contextual factors and dynamics between farm inputs, such as activity scale and labour, required model flexibility. As well, the quality of farm operational data feeding the models directly impacted result accuracy; improved data management practices are necessary for useful farm-level economic predictions. Ultimately, this work contributed to an improved understanding of dynamics within farm-level economics. The cost-benefit calculator tool can be broadly applied to help BC farmers and the BC farming industry navigate the challenges of agricultural climate resilience.
Valérie Zimmermann (Thu,) studied this question.