Opinion: Conserving grassland can save our farms

In the heart of Canada’s farmland, a quiet crisis is unfolding. Droughts are drying up fields, shrinking yields, and mounting losses for farmers. In 2021 alone, Manitoba lost $75 million in crop sales. Alberta’s drought insurance payouts in 2023 broke records, exceeding $326 million — tripling payouts from catastrophic droughts in 2021. Yet, an overlooked solution lies beneath our feet: grasslands. 

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Investing in grassland conservation can be one of the most effective and cheapest ways to reduce the risk of drought on Canadian farms. A recent report finds that conserving Prairie grasslands and managing them sustainably can boost economic growth and help farming communities adapt to a changing climate. 

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This investment is critical. We continue to lose our grasslands at an alarming rate. Between 2016 and 2021, the equivalent of more than 1.3 million football fields of Canadian grasslands were converted to cropland and urban areas. But why should we care? Grasslands are not empty fields; they are one of the most powerful tools we have to fight climate change and protect our economy. 

Beyond drought resilience, grasslands provide economic and environmental benefits that are often overlooked. While they have intrinsic value as part of the natural world, the case for investing in Prairie grasslands is strongest when we fully account and compensate for the economic, social and environmental services they provide. 

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Healthy grasslands capture, store and filter precious water resources in the Prairies through their deep roots, reducing the detrimental impacts of floods and droughts. They recharge groundwater by absorbing and infiltrating rainwater, providing clean drinking water for thousands of communities. 

Losing grasslands not only worsens drought risk — it also strips billions from Canada’s economy. The annual value of carbon sequestration in Manitoba’s grasslands is estimated at $867 million. Yet, we lose 1.3 million hectares every five years, a hidden economic loss that rarely makes headlines.

Grasslands also play a crucial role in regulating the carbon and nitrogen cycles vital to agricultural production and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Improved land-use practices — such as protecting areas next to waterways and integrating livestock with trees (silvopasture) — enhance biodiversity, nutrient cycling and water retention while making land more resilient to extreme weather. In central Alberta, silvopasture generates additional benefits valued at $27,400 per hectare.

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Forage production, like growing hay on healthy grasslands, is critical to ranchers and farmers, contributing more than $5 billion annually to the national economy. Sustainable forage management on perennial grasslands can reduce the amount of fertilizer and herbicide used on crops, support soil health and minimize soil erosion — providing cost savings for producers while increasing resilience to drought.

Producers and landowners are often faced with tough choices when, under current market conditions, maintaining grassland ecosystems makes ecological but not economic sense. 

Payment for ecosystem service markets, such as ALUS, can improve the business case for farmers and landowners to invest in grassland conservation and sustainable management, enhancing economic and ecological returns. Right now, farmers often make more money converting grasslands into cropland, even when conservation would provide long-term benefits.

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Carbon credit programs, like the Canada Grassland Protocol, could change that by paying farmers for the ecological benefits their land provides — just like any other valuable crop. 

Canada’s policymakers should consider enhancing investment conditions and establishing legislation to avoid further grassland loss and restore degraded areas. They should also develop markets for crucial ecosystem services to help unlock the full value of grasslands.

The values of ecosystem services are largely excluded from land assessments and farmland prices, creating a financial incentive to convert grasslands to high-value cropland. Carbon credits and biodiversity offsets can help correct this imbalance by financially rewarding nature-positive land management. But more needs to be done to ensure these types of markets result in a net-positive benefit for nature. 

The newly launched Grassland Learning and Knowledge Hub will focus on the economic, social and policy components of grasslands in Prairie Canada. This initiative can help bridge knowledge gaps, inform better policies and encourage investments in grassland conservation.

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Lastly, more public-private partnerships are needed to scale conservation efforts and compensate producers for the public benefits they provide. Programs such as Growing Roots are examples of innovative approaches that provide financial incentives for sustainable land management while helping private partners meet sustainability and net-zero goals. 

Canada is facing a considerable opportunity, but without immediate action, we risk losing a critical natural defense against drought and economic instability. By investing in grasslands today, we can secure a more resilient, prosperous future for our farmers, ranchers, environment and economy. With the right consultations and careful policy design, better grassland protections can be good economic policy — and a smart investment in Canada’s future.

Olivia Richardson and Talha Awan are research associates at the Smart Prosperity Institute, a national research network and policy think tank based at the University of Ottawa.

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Letters welcome

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