Federal program payments to Canadian farmers are continuing to decline, according to a new report from Agriculture Canada.
The report, which was released last week, crunches numbers through 2013 and cites strong commodity prices as a contributing factor in the falling numbers.
The document, An Overview of the Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food System, is issued annually and touches on a range of subjects, including producer payments, operating costs, greenhouse gas emissions and food waste.
Total government expenditures to the agriculture sector, including provincial and federal contributions, are estimated at $6.2 billion for 2013-14. Spending dropped from 34.6 to 31.2 percent as a share of the agriculture GDP.
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“I think what we’re seeing is the impact of increased prices on commodities in these figures that are coming out,” said Ron Bonnet, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.
The report shows an overall decline in government expenditures since the BSE crisis in 2003 but doesn’t reflect changes introduced by the federal government in 2013, which reduced benefits from the AgriStability and AgriInvest programs.
Grain, oilseed and oilseed receipts grew to account for 40.1 percent of all market receipts during the 2003-13 period. The record harvest of 2013 saw almost 60 percent of all prairie market receipts come from grain and oilseed sales.
“We’re still hearing concerns expressed about the low levels of support under AgriStability. That’s been a common complaint, but we really haven’t had a chance to test the system yet to see how that’s going to respond,” said Bonnett.
“With some of the drop in grain prices recently, that may start to come to pass.”
AgriInvest saw the government reduce its matching contributions to one percent of a producer’s allowable net sales from 1.5 percent, while the government lowered the point at which producers can qualify for AgriStability payments to 70 percent of their recent average income from 85 percent.
“I think there may be a bit of frustration out there about the lower payment levels, but I wouldn’t recommend people abandon it completely out there at this point,” Bonnett said.
“Still, having that 70 percent there does give some level of support if there is a crash and we’re going to try and keep working on how to manage some smaller drops.”
Bonnett didn’t expect the federal budget to change producer business risk management programs. The budget was to be unveiled this week after The Western Producer’s press deadline.
He said the CFA has lobbied for tax policies that assist family farm succession and transfer.
The Agriculture Canada report also addressed food waste, which is identified as a key issue for global food security.
It found that one-third of available food is lost or wasted at the household or retail level in Canada.
“We do have four million people in this country that live in varying degrees of food insecurity,” said Diana Bronson, executive director of Food Secure Canada.
“You cannot do otherwise than draw the link between those two facts, that there is food that is being thrown out at the same time there is people who are going hungry. That is a terrible irony and a terrible illustration of how our food system is broken.”
