Murray Downing continues planting an idea that he hopes farmers can benefit from.
The challenge for the Reston, Man., farmer is getting the idea to take root in the minds of producers, politicians and bureaucrats.
Downing last year developed a proposal for an income assurance program that he said could give farmers a buffer against production disasters and poor commodity prices.
He has spent the past couple of months sharing his idea with producers and politicians. That effort included staging more than two dozen community hall meetings to get his message across.
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“We all know that time is of the essence,” he said in an interview.
“If we want change we’ve got to make it happen ourselves.”
Last week Downing approached Manitoba agriculture minister Rosann Wowchuk for her support. Wowchuk said her office will ask the federal government for its analysis of the proposal.
As a long-term safety net, the income assurance program would need a commitment of funding from the provinces and Ottawa.
“We always welcome ideas from producers,” Wowchuk said. “That’s the way programs are developed.”
Downing presented his proposal to the House of Commons standing committee on agriculture last
December.
The committee, chaired by Liberal MP John Harvard, had asked prairie farmers for their ideas about farm safety nets and the income crisis. The committee was to table its final report and recommendations in the House of Commons this week.
That report, along with proposals such as Downing’s, will be grist for the mill during upcoming meetings of the national safety net advisory committee, said Roger Eyvindson, director of policy development for Agriculture Canada.
Recommendations from the advisory committee will be considered by the provinces and Ottawa as they attempt to reach agreement on a farm safety net program.
Downing’s proposal borrows on ideas from crop insurance and the defunct Gross Revenue Insurance Plan. He believes it is a more bankable program than the Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance program. He also thinks it can promote better farming practices.
He has made some changes to his proposal since it was first conceived. That includes making producers eligible for a basic premium deduction for summerfallow or chem-fallow.
The percentage deductible would be equal to the percentage of summerfallow to total acres.
Details of Downing’s proposed income assurance program can be found on the internet at: www.rescro.com/iap.
