Toward a low-carbon and climate resilient agriculture sector: Policies to increase the adoption of cover crops in British Columbia

British Columbia's (BC) agriculture sector produces greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change. The agriculture sector is also severely threatened by adverse impacts of a changing climate such as drought, flooding, soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and more. Increasing the adoption of cover crops is one important pathway to mitigate emissions from and increase the resilience of the province's agriculture sector. However, cover crops are not being adopted to their full potential on farms given the presence of externalities that generate unpriced societal benefits from planting and maintaining cover crops, and additional barriers faced by farmers. I examine five policy measures to address the externality problem as well as alleviate barriers: expand BC's Farm Adaptation Innovator Program (FAIP); carbon sequestration payment; expand BC's Beneficial Management Practices (BMP) program; compulsory cover crop regulation; and a cover crop advisory committee. I recommend that BC expand its FAIP and BMP programs.