Stan Struthers, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives

 

 

The provincial agriculture minister says he expects there will be substantial changes to the Growing Forward suite of programs.

Ministers have started discussing the details of "Growing Forward 2." The existing Growing Forward agreement expires in 2013.

"The magnitude of the changes will depend on the advice that we get from farmers. So I don't want to pre-judge anything that farmers will bring forward, but I'm really optimistic that we can make improvements that benefit farmers. If it doesn't benefit farmers, then there's no point in moving forward," says Stan Struthers. "I suspect we will be making some substantial changes, but that will again be based on the advice we get from farmers."

Business risk management programs were a main topic at the semi-annual federal/provincial/territorial agriculture ministers meeting in Toronto last week.

"The main issue of discussion at the meeting was the continuing review of our existing programs - AgriStability, AgriInvest, AgriRecovery, AgriInsurance. We're in the midst of collecting data on the consultations that have taken place with farmers," says Struthers. "We are determined to meet with farmers and farm leaders on how we can make these programs better. That was the main focus of our meeting on Friday."

He says the province is using feedback from farmers to find out where and how programs need to be changed.

"We hear from people who don't want a program like AgriStability. We know there are a lot of farmers that have trouble with their margins and that works against them. We know there are farmers that try to diversify their operations and the program works against that kind of diversification," he says. "We want to be able to take those kinds of concerns and deal with them as we change and improve these programs."

~ Tuesday, February 15, 2011 ~