Manitoba Pork Council is applauding the federal and provincial governments following last week’s announcement that Manitoba’s pork producers will be able to access a higher percentage of their estimated 2009 AgriStability payments.
Last week federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz and Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk announced the province’s pork producers will be able to access 75 percent of their estimated 2009 AgriStability payments up from 60 percent making available another 70 million dollars in support.
Manitoba Pork Council chairman Karl Kynoch says the change will put money into the hands of producers much earlier.
This is money that they would have normally got in about a year from now but we went in and met with the minister and had asked for a targeted advance payment.
Basically what that does is they get an estimate of what they’re expecting to get next year.
What it’s going to do for producers is put that money into their hands a lot sooner so that they can get out there and pay some bills and it’ll help them transition from now into profitable times.
The one thing that’s really positive of it is the fact that they went from 60 percent up to 75 percent so that’s basically tripled the money that was available before and it’s also going to cover more producers now that they’ve increased that percentage to take it up to that higher level.
The other thing that they did is they recalculated the 2009 payments or the market the conditions and all of that so that also added some more money to it and it really helped out.
You’ve got to remember there is still a lot of producers that do fall through the cracks in the programs but it will definitely help a broader range of producers than it did before at the 60 percent.
Kynoch says, while the change will benefit a broader range of producers, there will be some who lose out because of the manner in which the program operates.
He notes diversified farmers often find themselves in a position where income in one sector of the farm will offset losses in another reducing their overall access to funds through the program.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
