An environmental outcome is a beneficial change to the environment - this can include a change to the land, the water, or the air. Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs), also called Regenerative agricultural practices, help deliver a range of potential environmental outcomes including:

• Increased soil carbon sequestration
• Reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• Improved water quality
• Enhanced biodiversity

These outcomes can directly mitigate the impacts of droughts, floods, and heat waves. They support farm resilience, environmental health, and broader well-being.

There are a variety of ways these outcomes can be produced on the farm.

The Million Acre Challenge program will provide financial and agronomic support to incentivize the adoption of beneficial management practices on farms in Southwestern Ontario, which lead to environmental outcomes.

Note: Flat-rate financial support will be provided to all farmers who implement eligible practices through the Million Acre Challenge, regardless of outcomes measured, and regardless if the practice itself struggles to be successful on the farm (e.g., poor cover crop establishment does not change the ability for a participating farmer to be paid, as long as the cover crop is planted).

The beneficial management practices (BMPs) in the Million Acre Challenge Program

The BMPs that CANZA is supporting for the first iteration (Cohort 1) of the Million Acre Challenge Program are listed below, along with brief descriptions of the practice and how it provides potential environmental outcomes.

Why these practices?

The practices supported for Cohort 1 were selected based on feedback throughout the program design process from key industry stakeholders and over 30 farmers. The list was refined further based on Cohort 1 farmer interest, and may expand in future Cohorts of the program. CANZA recognizes this list of beneficial practices is far from exhaustive, and is gradually building out the ability to measure outcomes across a variety of practices.

The broad environmental benefits of various BMPs on the farm, including the BMPs listed above, are relatively well understood.

Also well understood is that implementing new practices on the farm presents barriers. When farmers try something new on the farm that offers environmental benefits, they typically bear most of the cost and risk associated with this work themselves. Costs and risks associated with implementing a new practice within an existing agricultural system are naturally complex, and broadly can include:

• High capital costs upfront and/or an increase in operating costs
• Uncertain return on investment
• Lack of specific agronomic support

What is less well understood is specifically quantifying the beneficial environmental outcomes created on the farm

If outcomes are quantified, this leads to the opportunity for a marketplace where these outcomes can be financially rewarded.

The Million Acre Challenge will catalyze the development of a future, national environmental outcomes marketplace.

The Marketplace will be a transaction system that aggregates verified and stackable on-farm outcomes. It will function like a virtual market for the positive environmental outcomes related to carbon sequestration, water, biodiversity, and reduced GHG emissions.

Here’s how CANZA plans to get there

Farmers who participate in the Million Acre Challenge Program will have two rounds of data collection, once before implementing a new practice to get baseline information about the farm and the soil and once after practice implementation to track any changes that have occurred. The goal with this process is to quantify the environmental outcomes and create a new revenue stream for farmers.

In Cohort 1, outcomes on participating farms (Flagship Farms) will be measured through two rounds of data collection, planned for Spring 2026 and Spring 2029, which will use a combination of:

• practice-based data (provided by the farmer through the application process)
• field measurements (collected through on-site soil carbon sampling)
• modelled estimates

All of this data will be tied together through CANZA’s emerging MMRV (Measurement, Reporting, Verification) framework

This Challenge will catalyze the development of a future, national environmental outcomes marketplace, which aims to drive a new economic model for beneficial management practices by valuing environmental outcomes such as carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions.

Over time, this approach will be expanded to include additional outcomes such as water quality, biodiversity, and other key indicators of farm and ecosystem health. In all cases, the outcomes will be turned into tangible value for farmers which may be marketed.

Who will reward (buy) the environmental outcomes that farmers produce?

The marketplace’s “buyers” will include governments and philanthropists seeking to invest in measurable and verified outcomes for climate and nature, as well as private investors who have an interest in supporting more sustainable supply chains and achieving their own sustainability targets.

There are a few terms you have likely heard in relation to an outcomes-based or carbon-based marketplace. Let’s break some of these down:

Carbon credit: A certificate with monetary value representing one tonne of CO2 equivalent reduced, avoided, or sequestered (stored)

Carbon offsetting: The concept of “offsetting” is a mechanism for companies to be recognised for greenhouse gas mitigation interventions made outside their own supply chains. Companies can invest in greenhouse gas emissions reduction activities in other industries and/or geographies and have that investment “offset” some of the emissions in their own operations.

Carbon insetting: The concept of “insetting” is a mechanism for companies to be recognised for greenhouse gas mitigation interventions made in their own supply chains. Insetting is the implementation of nature-based solutions such as reforestation, agroforestry, renewable energy and regenerative agriculture within a company’s supply chain.

Carbon sequestration/removal: The intentional process of removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and storing it.

Baseline: The initial measured amount of soil organic carbon in the soil before any management changes (new practices) have occurred

The Marketplace will aim to serve as a “one stop shop” to aggregate basic, publicly available information about existing corporate, government, NGO, and philanthropic incentive programs available to Ontario field crop farmers to support the adoption of beneficial and sustainable practices.

It will also include basic search functionality to help farmers across Ontario easily explore available program offerings.

Ultimately, the Marketplace will drive a new economic model for regenerative farming practices by turning environmental outcomes into tangible value.

MMRV stands for measuring, monitoring, reporting, and verifying. It’s a broad concept that many environmental organizations and governments use to track environmental metrics. Here’s what that means for CANZA:

At the core of the Million Acre Challenge is the link between on-farm practice change and the validation of measurable outcomes for climate and nature. Demonstrating this connection requires clear, consistent, and comparable data. A credible, farmer-friendly system for measuring, monitoring, reporting, and verifying (MMRV) environmental outcomes is essential for supporting farmers in improving productivity and resilience, and to provide trusted results for outcome purchasers and partners across the agri-food value chain.

Early progress is being made through the development of an innovative tool and framework to measure, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. Over time, this approach will be expanded to include additional outcomes such as water quality, biodiversity, and other key indicators of farm and ecosystem health.

There are many existing frameworks, standards, and guidance for carbon sequestration goals and reporting.

So, how is CANZA’s Marketplace different?

CANZA plans to enable multiple paths for farmers to generate outcomes, by integrating multiple existing standards* into the Marketplace. Rather than reinventing the wheel, the goal is to allow a farmer participating in CANZA programming to have multiple established paths through which “outcomes” can be generated. These will all be integrated “behind the scenes”; a farmer does not need to “apply” multiple times. CANZA will establish a range of potential outcomes from the Million Acre Challenge, and connect these to existing carbon offsetting targets (for example, targets that exist for corporations or other organizations).

The data collection for a farmer’s Million Acre Challenge project (such as data collected through soil carbon sampling and through the cropping plan) is also being built around existing guidance, and will be refined based on Ontario-specific content. Data that will be collected includes but is not limited to: fertilizer nutrient content and rate, soil class, carbon content, bulk density, amendments applied and rate, residue management practices, rotation and land use changes.

CANZA’s Marketplace staff are putting in ongoing hard work behind the scenes to expand the Marketplace and its cohesive data-based foundation!

Of course, CANZA is not carrying out this work alone. To build the MMRV system, CANZA continues to work collaboratively with multiple specialized organizations for defining standards and verification, soil organic carbon sampling, modelling and data storage, business model development, and more.

The Marketplace itself will also act as a data repository and modelling hub, with functionality such as:

• Integrations with common farm management software (e.g., John Deere Operations Centre, Climate Field View)
• Option for farmers or agronomists to enter data
• Repository for cropping plan and in-season
• Quantification and modelling capabilities (i.e., HOLOS, Cool Farm Tool, GREET, etc)
• Data storage and reporting
• Integration with the Fieldprint Calculator

Participating farmers and their CCAs will be informed when the Marketplace is launched and as its functionality is expanded over time, and provided with resources to learn how to use the Marketplace and make the most of its functions.