Sponsor: Medicine Hat
Co-Sponsor: Red Deer

Issue

Current risk management programs are not meeting the changing needs and requirements within agriculture. Furthermore, the lack of education and awareness around risk management strategies is limiting the growth and success of agriculture producers. 

Background

Less than 1% of Canadians are farm operators, with the number of farms in Canada declining and the land base of each farm increasing. Add to this the increases to average inputs per acre, increased labour and fixed costs and a declining net income and the result is that the dollar value for risk is substantially more than it used to be. ¹ As a result, producers require risk management solutions to create greater certainty and mitigate risk in order to improve farming options and opportunities. However, both government and producers groups have identified that improvements to agricultural risk management solutions and tools are needed. With federal priorities focused on agriculture and agri-food, there is a need to work directly with agriculture producers and industry stakeholder groups to help meet the outcomes and objectives desired and to hear first-hand about potential opportunities and areas for improvement.

Government’s Role 

A December 2019 news report from Food in Canada², stated that federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers of Agriculture met face-to-face to initiate action on a number of key proposals to improve support to Canadian producers, following what has been a difficult year for many producers due to a series of impacts including bad weather, the CN work stoppage, and market access issues. Further compounding the agriculture sector is the COVID-19 pandemic which has also added pressures on the agriculture industry with the need to modify work processes and address processing shortages and supply chain challenges.

Ministers recognized that the risks facing producers have changed, particularly with respect to climate and international trade, and that current programs may need to evolve to meet their needs. To start to address these changing risks, Ministers made targeted improvements to the AgriStability program and Ministers asked officials to change the treatment of private insurance for the 2020 program year.

Understanding that administrative burden is an issue for many, in particular for smaller producers, Ministers agreed to launch a pilot in select jurisdictions to make applying for support easier, by using tax return information to simplify the application process.

Ministers’ engagement on key business risk management programs signaled a direct response to the changing risks faced by producers. The business risk management programs aim to provide producers with tools to ensure the viability of their operations and to manage risks largely beyond their control. As a result, officials are to develop options to make the programs more effective, agile, timely, and equitable for producers. In particular, officials are to evaluate the impact of changes to the reference margin limit and changes to eligible expenses under AgriStability.

Out of recognition to support this vitally important sector in our economy, the provincial Government, through its business plans, prioritized the growth and sustainability of Alberta’s Agriculture and Forest sectors, along with focusing on managing our resources responsibly . Key objectives for the ministry include identification of strategic opportunities to create the environment for business success and delivering agricultural insurance products to give producers tools to reduce the economic impacts of risks beyond their control that threaten the viability of their farms. To gauge success of these key objectives, the government has committed to evaluate the number of value-added agriculture products developed and successfully introduced into the market, along with the percentage of eligible seeded acres for major crop categories insured under Production Insurance.

Under responsible resource management, the provincial government plans to assist primary producers and agri-processing companies to adopt environmental stewardship practices as part of improving sustainable resource management through research, policy, extension, programs and services while executing the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation’s lending mandate to support the development and competitiveness of primary agriculture, agribusinesses and value-added agri-processors. The Government has also set the objective to deliver agriculture education, knowledge transfer, and training programs and services to build and strengthen rural community capacity. The Government will seek to evaluate the average percentage of improved environmentally sustainable agriculture practices adopted by producers and the total investment leveraged in rural businesses and agribusinesses facilitated through Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) lending services.

Federally, in the mandate letter of the Federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food³,  there was specific guidance to work in collaboration with the provinces and territories to undertake a review of risk management programs, with a special focus on AgriStability in order to help producers manage environmental and business risks by providing faster and better adapted support, drawing from lessons from recent trade disputes and evidence-based research.

In order to meet objectives such as these, Government often turns to crown corporations to assist in delivering on its mandates. In Alberta, Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) is used to support the competitiveness of Alberta’s primary agriculture, agribusiness, and value-added agri-processing sectors.

For over 80 years AFSC has provided Alberta's agricultural producers, agribusinesses and other small businesses with loans, crop insurance and farm income disaster assistance in order to assist producers in managing their risk with a mission to provide leading, innovative, client-focused financial and risk-management solutions to grow agriculture in Alberta using a suite of programs and solutions .

AgriStability is just one program in a suite of business risk management programs that governments offer to help producers manage significant risks and provides Canadian agricultural producers with an ongoing whole-farm risk management tool that provides protection against large declines that threaten the viability of their farm. Under the program, allowable income includes the proceeds from agricultural commodity sales and the proceeds from production insurance. Allowable expenses include commodity purchases, along with direct input costs incurred in the farming operation.

Producer Concerns 

Less than 1% of Canadians are farm operators, with the number of farms in Canada declining and the land base of each farm increasing. Add to this the increases to average inputs per acre, increased labour and fixed costs and a declining net income and the result is that the dollar value for risk is substantially more than it used to be. As a result, producers require risk management solutions to create greater certainty and mitigate risk in order to improve farming options and opportunities. However, there is much needed improvement required to agricultural risk management solutions and tools offered, as identified by both government and producer groups.

Current programs are limiting and don’t allow for new opportunities such as the ability to expand intercropping. As there is a lack of insurance coverage for these opportunities, it prevents diversification through new cropping opportunities. 

In addition, current programs often require specific fertility, seed treatment and irrigation levels, without taking into account the producers management practices.  Modern farming practices and management systems often require lower inputs to produce a crop than more traditional practices.  By having minimum input levels built into the program without consideration of the producers farming practices, it can mean higher costs, and restricts the producers ability to follow best practice farming methodology. 

Limiting of the reference margin under AgriStability has also left collateral damage because liabilities were going up and the Government’s concerns over costs resulted in significant impacts to producers.

In addition, there have been significant changes to weather patterns, incidences of drought, amount of moisture and extreme weather events, requiring a need to adjust with them, taking into consideration seasonality and length of time drought happens, along with overall impacts of rain and whether there are benefits or negative implications as a result[4],  . While clients may choose one, two or three weather stations to best represent conditions on their farm, and within proximity of their land base, weather station information may be subject to change and weather systems are also changing. Therefore, more emphasis should be placed on the use of various technology tools to assess crops and pastureland to increase accuracy in the assessment and assist producers in addressing weather events.

Since AgriStability is a margin based program that provides whole farm protection , there are also limits to this. Under the Canadian Agriculture Program, there have been improvements to the Margin Limit with it being adjusted now to ensure a more equitable level of support for participants impacted by the limit. However, participants are subject to limiting of at least 70 per cent of their calculated Olympic Average Reference Margin, known as the Adjusted Reference Margin Limit. The reference margin limit impacts about one third of participants to varying degrees. The reference margin used to calculate benefits (the applied reference margin) is the lower of the Olympic and the average adjusted expenses for the same three picked years as the Olympic. Therefore, if a producer’s average adjusted expense for those three years was $200,000, the applied reference margin (used for calculating benefits) would be $200,000, which may only actually end up being 40% of their Olympic average. This type of example may seem extreme, but we have seen situations where limiting has impacted producers by a substantial amount.

Another limit is livestock price insurance. Currently, there are few truly effective risk management instruments that allow Western Canadian livestock producers to manage their risk. Cattle and hog producers in western Canada face volatile market prices and the Western Livestock Price Insurance Program is designed to be market driven to reflect the risks a producer in Western Canada faces when selling livestock. Livestock producers are typically ‘price takers’, with prices varying greatly year to year, due to many factors impacting the market. Having a tool available to help protect against the unknowns of the market and associated price volatility can assist a producer with being more profitable ⁵. While the current program helps with the risk at the time of selling, there is currently no program to help protect the producer against the unknowns of the market at the time of purchase. A reverse of the current program, allowing producers to lock in a ceiling price at the time of purchase, would go a long way to help alleviate the impacts of market volatility throughout the livestock ownership period. 

Within perennial crop insurance, AFSC provides a suite of insurance programs to provide a production guarantee for hay crops based on average historical yields and the coverage option selected and coverage for pasture based on conditions in the area, determined by an indicator of production loss, such as precipitation or satellite imagery. This coverage is not directly related to losses to insured fields, which results in inconsistency between annual crop insurance and perennial crop insurance programs.

There is also concern over claims processing, timelines for claims, adequate and educated staff resources for processing claims and the often long window of time from application to reimbursement, which often has an impact on financial yearend timelines for producers.

Another impact affecting availability of alternate risk management solutions is the application of a premium tax and fire prevention tax, which is applied by the provincial government on private agriculture risk management insurance products, exempting provincial agriculture insurance and AgriStability programs. This tax treatment is inequitable and creates an unfair playing field and disincentive for producers to obtain the best risk management solutions available to them.

With federal and provincial priorities focused on agriculture and agri-food, there is a need to work directly with agriculture producers and industry stakeholder groups to help meet the outcomes and objectives desired and to hear first-hand about potential opportunities and areas for improvement.

Recommendations
The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce, along with the Alberta Chambers of Commerce, recommend that the Province of Alberta and the Government of Canada:

1. Consult with industry and stakeholder organizations to determine improvements and solutions for all agriculture risk management options;

2. Create greater simplicity in risk management programs  by soliciting feedback from users to find out what isn’t working and ensure equitable coverage across all producer types;

3. Remove the premium tax on private insurance to create a level playing field in risk management options;

4. Provide more easily accessible, publicly available and tailored education tools for the creation of risk management strategies through options such as toolkits, workshops, webinars and online sessions;

5. Increase the reference margin trigger point up to 85% and include the ability for farmers to adjust inventory within Agri-Stability;

6. Evaluate all insurance tools in Canada and similar jurisdictions that have been successful, such as the United States, and a solution that creates a unified, consistent and streamlined process that is beneficial for all producers moving forward;

7. Provide better response time in assessments, claims and processing through service level agreements, ensuring adequate staffing levels and contracting third-party adjusters and verifiers to assist where needed;

8. Allow farms to file their year-end on the farm’s financial year-end as opposed to imposing a universal Agri-Stability year-end filing date;

9. Provide education on the cost of production per acre by providing a cost of production toolkit similar to the Province of Manitoba;

10. Conduct a full review of the crop insurance programs to ensure equity and flexibility and options for new cropping and diversification opportunities;

11. Utilize various technology methods to assess crops and pastureland in a more localized method in order to create greater accuracy in assessments; and

11. Develop a better program for livestock producers, for example including the opportunity for producers to lock in a ceiling price when purchasing livestock.