CALGARY – Alberta forage producers want coverage for forages and straw under the Net Income Stabilization Account even though the provincial government plans to end contributions to the program at the end of the 1996 tax year.
Lorene Cunningham of the forage council said federal and provincial officials will attend the council’s annual meeting Dec. 9 in Red Deer to discuss the idea of broadening coverage.
In Alberta, the NISA program never included straw and forages including alfalfa pellets and silage made from forages. Silage made from cereal is eligible for coverage along with forage seed. People using home-raised forages can’t include them in their NISA contributions either because no purchase or sale is made.
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Proposals to expand support programs upset cattle producer groups who don’t want any aspect of their business coming under government-supported plans.
At the same time they question why people growing their own animal feed can’t make NISA contributions for that area of their farm.
“Livestock operators who are unable to include their homegrown forages in NISA are being penalized for their efforts to diversify in a grain-based economy. This is at odds with the department of agriculture who has been trying to diversify agriculture,” said Dave Foat, president of the Western Stock Growers Association.
No subsidies wanted
The stock growers recently passed a resolution calling for the abolition of all government funded subsidy plans, including NISA.
In the view of the stock growers, NISA is a subsidy program and does nothing to encourage diversification in the West, said Foat. In times of restraint it’s not responsible to ask taxpayers to give agriculture more money, he said during the stock growers’ recent convention. If farmers want a safety net they should pay for it themselves.
More than 24,000 Alberta producers participate in NISA where accounts totaled more than $300 million.
Alberta producers were allowed to deposit in their NISA accounts to a maximum of three percent of total net farm sales. Prior to this tax year the Alberta government also provided a deposit equal to a third of the producer’s deposit. It’s not known whether Ottawa will pick up the additional portion when Alberta leaves the program.
