SASKATOON (Staff) – Of all the farm policy issues, Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister is particularly keen to take a hands-on approach to one.
Eric Upshall told farm women at a provincial conference last week that he wants to get into classrooms and tell children what agriculture is about.
He said he wants “to put a human side on agriculture and teach kids how important it is.”
He noted the challenge to the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly marketing system and a review of the crop insurance program as major policy issues. His philosophy on those issues is “what you fight hard to win, fight hard to keep.”
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Transportation debate
The province’s assistant deputy minister of agriculture, Terry Scott, speaking as a panelist, cited striking a proper balance between regulation and competition in transportation as a major issue.
Others he listed included pressures on marketing institutions due to free trade agreements, the need to develop permanent farm safety nets, funding research since it fuels diversification efforts, the role of farm lending, the conflicting demands on crown land (treaty entitlements, wildlife, environment) and the declining budgets for all government.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool economist Shelley Thompson said the federal government pumped $3.5 billion into the farm economy in 1987, but less than $1 billion last year. When hard times come, there won’t be taxpayer dollars to assist farmers, so they must learn to be self-reliant.
Producers need to be more aware of the impact of their management style, their ability to handle financial risk, and the clout they hold in developing agricultural policy, she said.
The third panel member, Indian farmer Gord Lerat, said native producers are still trying to develop as independent farmers. The band controls all land on a reserve and can countermand a band member’s farming decisions, he said.
Also, the Crow Benefit payout, designed to be compensation for the end of a grain transportation subsidy, will go to the band, not individual farmers.
