Just days after the news that Agrium and Potash Corp would be merging, Wednesday morning Bayer AG announced it has agreed to purchase Monsanto for $66 billion.

Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) president Dan Mazier thinks there are upsides and downsides to these type of large merger deals. For example, in the first case, he says Calgary-based Agrium and Saskatchewan's Potash Corp could become more competitive on a global scale by merging, however he says this could in turn provide less competition for Canadians when it comes to buying fertilizer.

"The problem is all the independents now have less people to buy from," he says, "so before, they could have bought from Potash Corp or Agrium, as far as nitrogen or phosphorous, and now those are one company. And to compound the problem, Agrium has their CPS outlets."

Mazier is worried that increasing numbers of consolidating agriculture companies could mean smaller companies in rural areas may suffer. In addition, he has some concerns for social licensing when it comes to big agriculture companies.

"Part of the concern is we're seeing some of these studies come out saying glyphosates are bad, or pesticides aren't good for you... I don't know how these bigger companies are going to handle the social licensing side of it," he says.

Mazier thinks there is a role for the government to play in ensuring these mergers are done correctly, adding that KAP will likely be watching this in the future.