The newly-signed Canadian Agricultural Partnership sets out the framework for business risk management stated Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart. Risk management will top every producer鈥檚 agenda this agricultural season as the province鈥檚 farmers deal with the lowest rainfall since the 1890s and spells of high temperatures not seen since the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s. Stewart was one of the provincial and territorial ministers attending the St. John鈥檚, NFL, meeting on July 19-21 to reach an agreement on the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
The ministers have a lot of details to finalize. 鈥淭here is still detailed negotiating going on around the other portions of CAP,鈥� said Stewart. But the particulars are being hammered out well in advance to ensure there are no gaps in programming. The transition from Growing Forward 2 to CAP comes in March-April at the end of the fiscal year, Stewart explained.
He also added that the Federal Government has changed some of its priorities and is asking the provinces to dedicate a certain amount of funding to features like climate change. Stewart noted that Saskatchewan has already been directing funding to environmental and other such programs. 聽
Saskatchewan鈥檚 Agriculture Minister stated that some positive changes were made to AgriStability regarding Reference Margin Limits. 鈥淭he change will ensure that producers from all sectors will have better access to AgriStability,鈥� he said. He gave an example of how some inefficiencies have been corrected in the program. In the past, lower cost cow-calf producers that put up their own feed were penalized by the way the RMLs were calculated. 鈥淚t will make AgriStability a better program for a fairly substantial number of producers,鈥� Stewart said.
At the same time, the minister cautioned that there will be no new funding for CAP, which will remain at the same level available in Growing Forward 2. 鈥淭he federal government did not let provinces have flexibility in where the funding would come from,鈥� Stewart explained, saying Saskatchewan was asking for flexibility in funding but it was not granted. The federal government dictated that monies would come from AgriInvest.
