A survey this winter revealed some support for a national farm safety
net that would cover producers’ costs of production.
It was done by a group of producers known as the Ottawa Trek Committee,
whose members have helped stage farm rallies and protests in recent
years over farm income supports.
The group did the survey at the Canadian Western Agribition in Regina
last November and Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon last month to gauge
producer views on several issues. They received 703 responses during
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the two farm shows.
One of the questions was about farm safety nets.
Roughly half the respondents said they wanted an enhanced crop
insurance program that covers their costs of production.
Such a program would give producers enrolled in crop insurance an
assurance that their costs of growing a crop would be met each year.
Net Income Stabilization Account was the next most popular option.
Twenty-five percent of those in Regina and 30 percent in Brandon listed
NISA as their first preference.
The survey was done by setting up booths at the two farm shows and
inviting producers to register their views on several aspects of the
current farm economy.
Murray Downing, a Manitoba grain producer who has lobbied for years to
add cost-of-production to farm safety nets, was one of the organizers.
He thinks linking cost of production with crop insurance would give
producers and government an effective way to manage risk.
“The structures are all there,” Downing said. “Don’t tear the walls
down. Just boost things up.”
Producers who took part in the survey represent mixed operations and
grain farms. More than half the respondents in Saskatchewan and
Manitoba said they subsidize their operations with off-farm income.
More than a third surveyed in Regina and almost half in Brandon had
bills owing from the previous year.
More than half in both provinces said they had diversified in the past
five years. While diversification created more debt and more work, few
who filled in the survey considered the changes beneficial.
“Diversification hasn’t made the impact (government) wanted it to or
said it’s going to,” said Daryl Knight, a grain grower and Ottawa Trek
Committee member from Decker, Man.
The survey also invited producer opinion on cash advance programs.
The majority of respondents were in favour of seeing the spring and
fall cash advance programs enhanced by the federal government. The
scenario outlined by the Ottawa Trek Committee would enable producers
to draw larger advances than are now available and would alleviate the
need to sign production contracts with grain companies or to take out
operating loans from lending institutions.
Signing a production contract with a grain company can secure inputs
needed to grow a crop, but it also can limit where producers buy inputs
and where they can market their crop.
Last month, Canadian Wheat Board chair Ken Ritter wrote a letter to
federal agriculture minister Lyle Vanclief asking that the maximum fall
interest-free cash advance be doubled to $100,000 per farmer.
Ritter and the Ottawa Trek Committee share the view that the change is
overdue due to increases in the average farm size during the past
decade.
