Assessment of the Delivery of the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan’s Soils and Site Evaluation Worksheet

Client: Ontario Soil & Crop Improvement Association

Expertise Applied:

  • Stakeholder engagement

  • Qualitative research analysis

  • Plain language writing

  • Knowledge of agri-environmental programming

The Ontario Soil & Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) engaged our team in 2022 to identify opportunities to improve the delivery of Soils and Site Evaluation Worksheet (Worksheet 1) of the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan (EFP), as well as the Soil and Slope sections of the Farmland Heath Check-Up (FHCU). 

The EFP program has been delivered in Ontario since the mid-1990s and serves as a self-assessment tool for farmers to identify opportunities to reduce environmental risk on the farm. The FHCU is a voluntary program for farmers in the Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair watersheds to assess soil health and water quality risks. The Soil and Slope Information sections of the FHCU cover similar content as the EFP’s Worksheet 1.

As part of the larger project, another consultant developed the Ontario Soils Calculator, which helps streamline the gathering of soils information for the EFP and FHCU. Through stakeholder engagement, we also identified ways to improve the beta version of this Calculator.

As part of this project, we:

  • Conducted a jurisdictional scan of the soils-related sections of EFPs from other provinces to identify opportunities for Ontario

  • Developed and administered a survey to Certified Crop Advisors (CCAs) and Professional Agrologists (P.Ags) who deliver the FHCU. We gathered feedback on the usability of the current soils resources, and identified opportunities for improvement.

  • Facilitated two focus groups with EFP workshop leaders and other EFP stakeholders to better understand the current EFP delivery methods. We identified opportunities to streamline and improve this delivery.

We developed practical and action-oriented recommendations that could be implemented over the short, medium, and long term to improve the delivery and content of Worksheet 1, as well as the related soils resources. 

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