Payments worth $50 million under the arable acres supplementary payment program begin this month.
Federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief and Alberta minister Ed Stelmach announced the payment last week.
Payments started July 7 to about 30,000 farmers and the remaining 20,000 eligible applicants should have cheques by September.
The arable acres program makes payments on Alberta land that was not eligible for the Western Grain Transition Payments Program after the Crow transportation subsidy ended in 1995. The province opted to pass on $50 million of federal safety net money to those acres that weren’t eligible for the Crow payout.
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Funding for the program comes from Alberta’s companion program allocation of the federal agriculture safety net budget. The province decides how the money is spent.
Most of the money goes to forage, pasture land and crops that didn’t qualify under the grain program.
About eight million acres of land is eligible and payment varies according to the land category as defined by municipal assessments. Irrigated arable land receives $9.56 per acre, dryland arable land is $6.50 and $3.71 per acre.
Landowners may not receive money if they already got full payment under the western grains or permanent cover programs.
All cheques are made payable to the landowner, not the person farming the land.
Farmers renting land from the government in the Special Areas of southeastern Alberta will receive five-sixths of the payment. For other government-owned land, producers get a two-thirds share of the payment.
