Farm leaders demanding immediate changes to business risk management programs are wasting their breath, a senior Agriculture Canada official suggested last week.
Any changes to the programs will not happen until the next generation of farm programs takes effect April 1, 2013.
Danny Foster, director general for business risk management program development at Agriculture Canada, told the House of Commons agriculture committee Nov. 25 that producer proposals for change in Growing Forward programs have been received and presented to federal and provincial agriculture ministers.
They have rejected any immediate changes as they negotiate details of the next agricultural policy framework that is scheduled to take effect in 28 months.
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Proposed changes include increased negative margin coverage in AgriStability, an increase in the cap on payments and changes to the years used to calculate historic margins that determine current payouts. “The ministers have agreed that they want to wait to make changes to programs in the context of the next BRM (business risk management) suite of programs. They’ve considered the changes that have been brought forward by industry and have made the decision that has to go into the mix of what the next round of programs should look like.”
It was unwelcome news to producers who have been lobbying for immediate changes.
