McCain Foods and Farm Credit Canada (FCC) are offering to reduce financial barriers for Canadian potato farmers who are transitioning to sustainable agricultural practices. McCain has a goal to implement regenerative agricultural practices across 100% of its contract potato acreage worldwide by 2030.
Through the Sustainability Incentive Program, FCC customers who are McCain suppliers are eligible to receive an incentive payment for their farm sustainability efforts. The calculation will be based on a portion of their total owing for eligible lending with FCC to a maximum payment of $2,000 a year. Participating McCain potato growers will also receive free access to FCC AgExpert farm management software for a year.
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McCain will add to the FCC incentive paid to its potato farmers, based on where the farmers are in their journey on McCain's Regenerative Agricultural Framework. Farmers at the "Onboarding" level of the Framework will receive matching funds. For farmers at the "Beginner" level, McCain will match $2 for every dollar received from FCC. The incentive from McCain increases as farmers progress through the framework to the Master and Expert levels. The incentive offered at these levels is roughly equal to interest-free financing (assuming up to $400,000 at 4%) to a maximum payment of $14,000 from McCain and $2,000 from FCC.
To ensure that regenerative agriculture is feasible and economically viable for farmers, McCain is testing its practices and principles, and experimenting with new equipment and technology with its Farms of the Future project, the first of which is located in Florenceville, New Brunswick, Canada.