Alberta will soon launch a provincial farm recovery plan with $165 million in “transitional” payments to help offset its farmers’ rising feed, fuel and fertilizer costs.
Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld announced in a release today that the province will start delivery of the farm recovery plan (AFRP) for eligible farmers in early November, to be wrapped up by early 2008.
Details have yet to be released but are expected “shortly.”
Payments will be based on Alberta farmers’ 2006 Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization (CAIS) information, so farmers who took part in CAIS in 2006 will automatically qualify with no application needed.
Farmers who didn’t take part in CAIS will have until Dec. 31 to apply, the province said.
Groeneveld said the AFRP is “only a temporary bridge to a long-term, more sustainable solution.” It’s expected, he added, that the ag sector will come up with its own long-term transformation plans to set a course toward profitability and “revitalization.”
