Most everything points out to a bright future for Lake Temiskaming. Let our Canadians hasten to gather on these fertile grounds. There is room for thousands.

Father Charles-Alfred-Marie Paradis, Missionary-colonizer of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, 1884.

By supporting the development of a sustainable agriculture, the Government of Quebec is ensuring that agriculture fully participates in the green economy, creates wealth, protects the environment and helps in the fight against climate change.

Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, 2020.

The present proposal regards the implementation of an experimental farm in Notre-Dame-du-Nord, a partnership with UQAT’s Station de recherche agroalimentaire situated right at the heart of Abitibi-Témiscamingue’s agricultural territory. This laboratory-farm would allow for the development of a new form of agricultural system supported by experimental connected infrastructures which could be implemented throughout Quebec’s territory. The project aims to achieve:

A reduction of agriculture’s impacts on environment ;

To ensure the profitable growth of agricultural companies ;

To ensure the prosperity of Quebec’s rural communities ;

To achieve alimentary self-sufficiency at the scale of the territory of Quebec ;

To address the psychological distress resulting from farmer’s overwhelming workload ;

To create a network of shared data and information between Quebec’s agricultural producers.

Throughout, the overarching goal is to promote the creation of a more sustainable agricultural system which would combine the advantages of new technologies with a focus on the social, environmental and economic dynamics proper to this territory, ultimately ensuring the access of both rural and urban populations to fresh and local products. This transition toward a smart agriculture must also participate to our autonomization vis-à-vis the North American monocultural system and the development of new tools and essential knowledges.

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