The net farm contribution to farm family income in 2000 was less than one dollar in five.
Even on the largest, most business-focused farms, the majority of family income came from off-farm sources.
The gap is widening between family income earned on the farm and off the farm.
There is evidence that foreigners with capital are not as likely to consider Canadian agriculture a good investment.
These are some of the findings of Statistics Canada analysts as they sifted through the results of the 2001 farm census.
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“I think a lot of that is symptomatic of what is going on in agriculture,” said Canadian Federation of Agriculture president and Manitoba farmer Bob Friesen in an interview as he considered the federal report. “We have a situation where most farms have to look off-farm for income to survive.”
He pointed to figures indicating that just 6.8 percent of farmers in 2001 were immigrants – one-third the rate in the general population – compared to 8.5 percent 30 years ago when the farm population was twice its current level.
“It looks like even immigrants who historically have sold their land and moved here to buy a farm are less likely to do that,” he said. “It probably doesn’t look like that great a deal.”
According to the Statistics Canada report from a census of unincorporated farms:
- The average farm family income was more than $2,000 lower than the typical $66,263 family income in the general population. Five years ago, the average farm family income was slightly higher than the national average.
- In tax year 2000, 17.7 percent of farm family income came from the farm, compared to more than 30 percent two decades ago.
- On farms with sales of $250,000 and more, the farm contributed 39.5 percent of family income. Wages and salaries were the largest income source while governments provided 6.6 percent.
The census showed that while immigrants are a declining factor in farming, when the numbers are added up, recent immigrants tend to have the capital to buy bigger or more expensive operations. Bringing cash and a desire to buy into agriculture allows them to claim status as economic immigrants.
“Immigrant farmers may be a declining portion of a declining population but they are significant contributors and their impact is large,” said the report.
Almost half of the farmer immigrants who arrived in the last half of the 1990s had capital assets of more than $1 million in 2001.
“Most of these high-value operations are operated by people born in the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Germany,” said Statistics Canada. “Over half are dairy farms. Restrictions on farming in these and other European countries are similar to those Swiss farmers face.”
The census returns showed that 31 percent of immigrant farm operators were women compared to 26 percent of Canadian-born operators, although the federal agency said that may simply be because immigrant women more readily identify themselves as farm operators.
Immigrant farmers also tend to be older than their native Canadian counterparts. While the average farm age in Canada is 50 years, the average age of immigrant farmers is 54.
