Now as never before it is necessary to mount a strong voice for the benefit of agriculture in this province.
As more and more family farms disappear and existing farm families struggle to make ends meet, the agricultural community needs a champion to put before governments and the public at large credible and innovative agriculture policy to address the needs of the ever-changing agricultural economy.
And what better vehicle to facilitate this endeavor than an organization born out of the well-organized and universally established Rural Municipality structure. The Rural Municipality structure has delivered excellent municipal government to farmers … now that same structure can provide a vehicle to help farmers deal with the rest of the issues that affect their day to day lives.
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Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
According to the information put out by the organizing committee of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskat-chewan, 10 cents per agricultural acre would provide sufficient funding to run the organization effectively. This small investment will be returned many times over as the APAS aggressively pursues the issues affecting agriculture.
Organizations like the UPA in Quebec have proven successful in representing their farmers because of three things: stable funding, universal participation by all farmers and the quality of leadership that is provided.
We here in Saskatchewan finally have the opportunity to achieve the same … Stable funding … through deduction at the RM level; participation by farmers … The RM organization can provide the opportunity for grassroots ratepayers to actively participate; Quality Leadership, grassroots ratepayers moving up in the organization to leadership roles providing a sound knowledge of farm issues. Let’s not let this opportunity pass us by.
– Linda Treppel-Boxall,
Municipality of Sherwood
Regina, Sask.
