Farmers should be receiving their share of a $400 million cost of production payment from the federal government.
So far, about 125,000 producers should have received cheques worth $225 million from the program, federal agriculture minister Chuck Strahl said July 12 at the Calgary Stampede where he later signed a symbolic cheque for $1 billion.
The $1 billion program offers a direct payment to address production costs and another $600 million for producer savings accounts.
It is part of the newest farm aid program called AgriInvest, intended to replace past programs like the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS).
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Most producers will automatically receive a payment of their share of the $400 million and do not have to apply. The initial payment is based on 2.36 percent of a producer’s net sales for 2000-04. If funds remain, final payments will be made in
December.
Producers who did not participate in CAIS for 2004, or who began farming after 2004, must send in an application. Applications can be requested on-line or downloaded from the program website at www.agr.gc.ca/cop, or by calling 866-367-8506.
New money
Meanwhile, the federal government announced July 13 it will spend $52 million over the next four years to help farmers unable to seed due to spring flooding or wet fields.
The payments will be made under the Cover Crop Protection Program (CCPP), which was introduced in May 2006 to compensate farmers unable to seed in 2005 and 2006. Payments totalling $73 million were made to 22,000 producers for those years.
For 2007, farmers enrolled in crop insurance and unable to seed by the deadline may be eligible to receive CCPP payments of up to $15 an acre by filing an insurance claim.
The program won’t be available to producers until the areas eligible for payments have been determined. The government said the program will target areas where “an extraordinary number” of unseeded acreage claims were filed.
