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Northern agricultural futures
Northern youth participating in garden skills training in Sambaa K’e, NWT. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Temmer.
Project Background
Climate change causes profound impacts on traditional food systems across NWT and negatively affects community health and well-being. To adapt to these changing conditions, communities are turning to food production, to alleviate complex issues leading to food insecurity.
Northern Agriculture Futures works with communities to ensure that agriculture is developed in a way that meets local needs without hindering local ecosystem health. The research brings together a broad range of stakeholders across the Dehcho and South Slave regions to build capacity, knowledge and develop best practices for communities across the NWT.
Outcomes
- Barriers communities face to implementing agriculture as a climate change adaptation include land suitability and availability, capacity, limits to plant productivity and policy.
- Agroecology, a sustainable production approach and social movement, aligns with Indigenous food sovereignty priorities and land stewardship approaches and is an ideal model for NWT agriculture that benefits communities and ecosystems.
- Participatory Action Research is a powerful tool that empowers Indigenous communities to develop climate change adaptation strategies that integrate Traditional Knowledge and Western Science, build local capacity, and contribute to community well-being.
Regional gardening workshop (Sambaa K’e, June 2022). Photo courtesy of Julia Gyapay.
Impacts
Through Northern Agriculture Futures communities engage with multiple stakeholders to design climate change adaptation projects that prioritize land stewardship, food security, Indigenous perspectives, and community well-being.
Between 2018-2023 Northern Agriculture Futures has contributed to:
- Community and regional climate change adaptation, sustainable agriculture, and food systems planning.
- Development of three community garden pilot projects.
- Gardening skills training, mentorship, and employment opportunities.
- Nutrient and carbon soil mapping to identify sites suitable for agriculture.
- Supporting the establishment of a network of food related organizations in the NWT.
- Creating community reports to share experiences and good practices with communities and stakeholders across NWT.
Kakisa community members developing their vision for a sustainable food system. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Temmer.
Partners
- Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation
- Sambaa K’e First Nation
- K’atl’odeeche First Nation
- Jean Marie River First Nation
- Hamlet of Enterprise
- Territorial Agri-Food Association
- Ecology North
- Government of the Northwest Territories, Industry, Tourism and Investment