Kernel;
I will see next week if I can get sample farm info.
Jack Howell had a discussion on the Call of the Land today... @http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/ministry/call_land/02_338.html
Provincial Ministers of Agriculture and the Federal Agriculture Minister are meeting in Ottawa and one of their main subjects of discussion is the Agricultural Policy Framework – the proposed new way of doing business when it comes to risk management on the farm or farm safety nets if you like.
While nothing is set in stone as yet, a paper has been written on the issue and is posted on Agriculture Canada's website. We've been looking that paper over and thought we'd pass along some of what's in it. That way, you can get a feel for what's being proposed.
Let's start with NISA – the Net Income Stabilization Account. The proposals call for producer contributions to be matched by governments as they are withdrawn, rather than when they are deposited. Upon retirement, producers would only be able to withdraw their own contributions. Bonus interest payments would be eliminated. These changes try to address the concern that many farmers are using NISA as a pension plan, rather than a farm safety net.
There's other facets of NISA that would also change. Producer contributions would be based on a percentage of eligible net sales and a percentage of margin. There would be income stabilization and disaster assistance aspects to triggering a NISA payment, all based on a modified accrual accounting system.
An investment trigger is also being considered for NISA, whereby producers could withdraw NISA funds to make specific investments to improve long term profitability. As for contributions, the feds are proposing to increase contribution levels to NISA and to let farmers carry forward unused contributions.
Crop Insurance is getting an overhaul too. Remember this is a federal provincial program. There's a proposal for different levels of government support depending upon the type of loss. Full government funding is proposed to cover waterfowl and wildlife crop damage and infrequent catastrophic loss situations.
For "comprehensive production loss protection", 60 percent government cost sharing is proposed. The federal government, together with the provinces is proposing to cover only 33 percent of premium costs for spot loss and split risk options such as variety, field insurance, and so on.
A wider range of programming options are being discussed for crop insurance. What is called a "crop basket" option might be added as a way to insure total crop returns at less cost than crop-specific insurance.
The feds also want to develop a linkage between production insurance and the new NISA program to promote farmers being involved in both.
Cash advances get a look in this paper too. It's proposed that the cash advance programs be extended for five years, concurrent with the new Agriculture Policy Framework.
Now if adopted, change won't happen all at once. The government says key program changes would be introduced over time to ensure broad understanding. For 2003, it is proposed that producers continue to provide the same tax information they now provide for NISA. Producers would be asked to provide accrual information for that year only if necessary to calculate a disaster entitlement. This would mean providing the same data now collected under the Canadian Farm Income Program or CFIP as it's referred to.
As far as crop insurance is concerned, the feds say the same products would be available for the 2003 crop year, with new products gradually added by 2005.
Now as we said there's lots of discussion ahead on this. Several provinces haven't yet officially signed on to this Agriculture Policy Framework. Alberta is one of those who has. We'll see what comes out of the ministerial discussions this week.
I will see next week if I can get sample farm info.
Jack Howell had a discussion on the Call of the Land today... @http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/ministry/call_land/02_338.html
Provincial Ministers of Agriculture and the Federal Agriculture Minister are meeting in Ottawa and one of their main subjects of discussion is the Agricultural Policy Framework – the proposed new way of doing business when it comes to risk management on the farm or farm safety nets if you like.
While nothing is set in stone as yet, a paper has been written on the issue and is posted on Agriculture Canada's website. We've been looking that paper over and thought we'd pass along some of what's in it. That way, you can get a feel for what's being proposed.
Let's start with NISA – the Net Income Stabilization Account. The proposals call for producer contributions to be matched by governments as they are withdrawn, rather than when they are deposited. Upon retirement, producers would only be able to withdraw their own contributions. Bonus interest payments would be eliminated. These changes try to address the concern that many farmers are using NISA as a pension plan, rather than a farm safety net.
There's other facets of NISA that would also change. Producer contributions would be based on a percentage of eligible net sales and a percentage of margin. There would be income stabilization and disaster assistance aspects to triggering a NISA payment, all based on a modified accrual accounting system.
An investment trigger is also being considered for NISA, whereby producers could withdraw NISA funds to make specific investments to improve long term profitability. As for contributions, the feds are proposing to increase contribution levels to NISA and to let farmers carry forward unused contributions.
Crop Insurance is getting an overhaul too. Remember this is a federal provincial program. There's a proposal for different levels of government support depending upon the type of loss. Full government funding is proposed to cover waterfowl and wildlife crop damage and infrequent catastrophic loss situations.
For "comprehensive production loss protection", 60 percent government cost sharing is proposed. The federal government, together with the provinces is proposing to cover only 33 percent of premium costs for spot loss and split risk options such as variety, field insurance, and so on.
A wider range of programming options are being discussed for crop insurance. What is called a "crop basket" option might be added as a way to insure total crop returns at less cost than crop-specific insurance.
The feds also want to develop a linkage between production insurance and the new NISA program to promote farmers being involved in both.
Cash advances get a look in this paper too. It's proposed that the cash advance programs be extended for five years, concurrent with the new Agriculture Policy Framework.
Now if adopted, change won't happen all at once. The government says key program changes would be introduced over time to ensure broad understanding. For 2003, it is proposed that producers continue to provide the same tax information they now provide for NISA. Producers would be asked to provide accrual information for that year only if necessary to calculate a disaster entitlement. This would mean providing the same data now collected under the Canadian Farm Income Program or CFIP as it's referred to.
As far as crop insurance is concerned, the feds say the same products would be available for the 2003 crop year, with new products gradually added by 2005.
Now as we said there's lots of discussion ahead on this. Several provinces haven't yet officially signed on to this Agriculture Policy Framework. Alberta is one of those who has. We'll see what comes out of the ministerial discussions this week.
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