A Reston, Manitoba area grain and oilseed producer is calling on Canadian farmers and farm organizations to review and express their opinions on a proposed top up to the federal AgriStability program.
AgriStability Plus is being proposed as a voluntary whole farm companion program to AgriStability and is designed to provide a guaranteed 100 percent return on the cost of producing agricultural commodities.
Producers and farm organizations are being encouraged to review the proposal and provide their input.
Reston area grain and oilseed producer Murray Dowing says the program would be underwritten by the federal government, it would voluntary and it would be available to all Canadian farmers.
This is a whole farm program that will want to be bankable and predictable.
It will be delivered by the federal government and who qualifies, if you’re a producer in Canada you qualify.
Some of the conditions are, if your farm is eligible to have crop insurance like the grains and oilseeds you must carry crop insurance, you must be enrolled in AgriStability, then you have the option to buy this plus program but this plus program is an option.
If you think it’s a benefit you can purchase it just like an insurance style program.
But here’s the key point, producers are fully responsible for the premium.
What that means, if the government is not subsidizing a premium in any way, it’s not countervailable and that’s something that’s very very important to the agriculture industry in Canada in general.
So the key thing is, if it’s funded by the producer 100 percent, there’s not countervail action that can be taken by another country.
Downing notes farmers in Canada have been pushing for a cost of production program for years.
He says the goal is to have a package ready to present to Canada’s agriculture ministers when they meet in July to discuss business risk management programming so the time lines are fairly tight.
Additional information on AgriStability Plus can be accessed by visiting Manitoba Pork Council’s web site at manitobapork.com.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
