Shuswap Agricultural Plan

“This is one of the best agricultural strategies we’ve ever seen!”

– Ministry of Agriculture staff member

The Salmon Arm Economic Development Society (SAEDS) and Columbia Shuswap Regional District identified key challenges in how the community could support their agricultural industry.

Methodology and developments included:

• A dynamic community website http://growshuswap.com/
• IdeaScale – an interactive forum where the community could suggest, discuss and vote on proposed ideas.
• Situational analysis of the region, including land availability using GIS ALR
  Focus groups evaluating the ideas from the community, with the support of NVIVO qualitative data analysis software
• An agricultural plan that had both adaptation and mitigation approaches to climate change

Starting with defining a clear Agricultural Strategy for the region, SSG identified mechanisms to support food security, sustainable growth of agriculture, and future land use and strategic plans. This involved looking at regional differentiation, collaboration between organisations, community engagement, research, education and marketing.