An extra requirement is coming for the AgriInvest program for 2025. Producers with allowable net sales of $1 million or more per year will require an environmental assessment to receive the matching government contribution.
The change in AgriInvest came out of the federal/provincial/territorial agriculture ministers meeting more than two years ago. Little has been heard about it since then, but details are now available.
Under AgriInvest, a producer contributes one per cent of the farm’s allowable net sales and receives a matching government contribution. The program is capped at $1 million in allowable net sales per farm, which with a one per cent contribution rate means a maximum matching contribution of $10,000 per year.
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Starting in the 2025 program year, farms with allowable net sales of $1 million or more averaged over the previous three years, before applying the limit, will need to have an approved environmental assessment to receive the government money.
Various assessments meet the criteria, including 4R designation, nutrient management plans, sustainable beef production standards and organic certification.
In Saskatchewan, an Agri-Environmental Risk Assessment has been developed and producers who complete it can use it as a declaration up until the end of the federal/provincial programming agreement in 2028.
According to a memo from the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, producers affected by the AgriInvest change will be receiving letters of explanation from Agriculture Canada.
Many producers aren’t at $1 million or more in allowable net sales averaged over the past three years, but lots are. A 3,000-acre grain farm with $334 per acre in gross sales meets the threshold.
Affected producers in Saskatchewan will be left wondering how onerous the Agri-Environmental Risk Assessment is. The answer appears to be not very onerous at all.
When you link to the website, the assessment simply requires a bunch of reading, which involves topic areas such as soil and nutrient management, crop and pest management, biodiversity and handling and storage of farm inputs. You apparently just have to read it, declare that you’ve read it, fill out a form and voila, you’re good to go. It’s about as simple and non-intrusive as you can make a risk assessment.
A few may balk at having strings attached to a program that otherwise had no outside requirements, but with $10,000 a year in free money at stake, there’s a strong incentive to just read the material and comply.
It’s a carrot rather than a stick approach, somewhat reminiscent of the environmental farm planning workshops held in Saskatchewan more than two decades ago. You had to attend a workshop and fill out a booklet in order to access some cost sharing money for items such as GPS lightbars and narrow openers for your seeding implement.
Considerably more effort was required back then, but money was tight and lots of producers participated. The vast majority of those environmental farm plans sat on a shelf collecting dust and were never again reviewed or updated.
With all the talk of public trust, sustainability and net zero carbon emissions, you wonder if the new AgriInvest requirement will be the first step of many. Alternatively, perhaps more programs will emerge that pay producers for specific practices such as the ones already providing support for seeding land back to native forages.
I’m willing to bet that we’ll see many carrots replaced by or supplemented by sticks, requirements that come without any reward. Overall, environmental requirements will likely become increasingly onerous.
Kevin Hursh is an agricultural journalist, consultant and farmer. He can be reached by e-mail at kevin@hursh.ca.
