The awareness-raising campaign, “Our countryside: a living space to share,” was deployed in February 2020, and has aimed to debunk misconceptions, mitigate nuisances, and address the issues and realities of the agricultural world.

This major project has had many positive effects for all the partners who joined forces, pooling resources and efforts to develop tools and strategies to give this awareness-raising campaign a regional scope. Numerous appearances of this campaign and its activities in the news have shown that the message has reached well beyond just the Montérégie region.

As a place for living, working, and leisure, the agricultural environment offers many advantages, including the beauty of the landscape and access to fresh products. However, at certain times of year, residents must show patience in dealing with the challenges of agriculture. Several communication tools have been developed and disseminated across multiple platforms among all the project’s partners and municipal actors, with the goal of reaching residents and farmers in the Montérégie to demystify the main themes of agricultural work (soil health, odours, water, pesticides, road-sharing, and noise). Project partners have access to a “toolbox” of visuals, various content items, and promotional materials that have been deployed throughout the campaign. Four animated video clips were also produced and widely disseminated, with nearly 8,000 views. Finally, a radio campaign saw these promotional messages broadcast on the airwaves of Boom FM and other local radio stations in the Montérégie.

Agriculture, my neighbour!

A series of activities were also held in municipal day camps to help children aged 7 to 12 to discover the realities of the rural world around them. Lasting about 1 hour 15 minutes, the fun and instructive activity included interactive presentations, informative and amusing questionnaires, active, themed games, and a planting session. Participants highly appreciated the activity, which made it possible to raise awareness among 2,300 children from dozens of cities and municipalities throughout the Montérégie.

Remember that this project, which was launched in April 2019, was funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as part of its Territories program: Bio-food priorities, by the Montérégie UPA Federation (MUPAF), by the Montérégie’s 13 partner RCMs (Acton, Beauharnois-Salaberry, Brome-Missisquoi, Haut-Richelieu, Haut-St-Laurent, Haute-Yamaska, Jardins-de-Napierville, Marguerite-D’Youville, Maskoutains, Pierre-De Saurel, Roussillon, Rouville and Vallée-du-Richelieu), and by Greater Longueuil, for a total budget of more than $400,000.