Electric tractors and more payments for ecological services — that’s what dreams are made of for Arzeena Hamir, who says more government money toward climate solutions in agriculture would mean big steps toward reducing emissions on her Comox Valley farm.

Hamir is the co-chair of Farmers for Climate Solutions, a Canada-wide organization advocating for advancing climate-based agricultural policies, as well as an owner of Amara Farms in Courtenay, B.C.

Days after the federal government unveiled its fiscal update, proposing $98.4 million in funding toward climate solutions in agriculture over the next 10 years, Farmers for Climate Solutions sent a recommendation to the federal government: set aside $300 million in the 2021 budget for agri-environmental spending.

“As farmers, we see the impact of climate change incredibly intimately,” said Hamir. “So, on my farm here in the Comox Valley, we’re seeing just incredibly unpredictable weather. And so I’m incentivized to get involved in this.”

In 2018, agriculture made up eight per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, with the majority of those emissions coming from livestock digestion and the use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizers.