VICTORIA – The country’s largest farm lobby would be wise to open its arms to create a coalition with industry and other interests who have a stake in making sure farmers’ production levels remain steady.
Hartley Furtan, a professor of agricultural economics at the University of Saskatchewan, offered those words of advice to farmer delegates to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s annual meeting here Feb. 26.
Rising input costs threaten to drive down production, particularly for grain farmers, Furtan warned.
“The income situation for grain farmers has some real troubling clouds very near to us. Already we are seeing substantial reductions in farm income forecasts and particularly this is going to hit grain farmers.”
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If agriculture production drops in Canada, farmers won’t be the only ones struggling to stay afloat, he said. The industry also includes those who produce nitrogen, chemicals and machinery, and companies that handle grain.
Others benefit too
Farmer organizations like the CFA need to broaden their scope and recognize farmers aren’t the only ones making money off farming.
“I would suggest the CFA as it represents farmers needs to build a very broad coalition including input suppliers and the people who handle the outputs to say if we’re going to keep production up, we’re going to have to find a way to deal with this reduction in our environmental base because the market is simply not going to pay farmers to do it,” Furtan said.
“Canadian farmers have taken a large reduction in support and that has not happened in other countries.”
He also called on the federal government to step up its role in helping producers implement environmentally sustaining farm practices.
In a later interview, Furtan denied that agriculture and environmental groups cannot work together. Building a coalition would strengthen CFA’s power as a lobby group while adding much-needed support to the federation’s pocketbook, he suggested.
“I don’t see a chasm there. Environmentalists are smart people and they’re a wealthy lobby.”
Prairie Pools delegate Ray Howe said as the agriculture industry changes, so should the role of the CFA.
“In some areas CFA is not serving the same role it once did, like in the commodity area which is more specific,” Howe said. “CFA has not had to fill that role so it can work in other areas.”
