Improving Risk Management for Agriculture Producers

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

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 ratio of revenue to risk is substantially larger 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. Both government and producer groups have identified that improvements to agricultural risk management solutions and tools are needed. 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.

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