Putting Canada First: An Architecture for Agricultural Policy in the 21^st Century

Overview

• What the Agricultural Policy Framework is about
• What governments are working towards
• What will be the next steps

The ultimate goal is sustained sector growth and profitability

• The key to agricultural success in the 21st century is to rise above the competition
• Ministers, working in partnership with the industry, have developed the Agricultural Policy Framework to support Canadian agriculture in its efforts to achieve growth and greater profitability

Agriculture Ministers agree on the key elements of the policy framework

• Food Safety and Food Quality
• Environment
• Science and Innovation
• Renewal
• Business Risk Management

gaining recognition of Canada at home and abroad as the best in the world.

The Agricultural Policy Framework

• Why this element is important to sector profitability
• What goal governments and industry have set to make progress
• What policies and programs governments will offer the industry in support of achieving the results

Food Safety and Food Quality - Governments and industry working together will achieve the goals of:

• protecting human health by reducing exposure to food-borne hazards
• increasing consumer confidence
• increasing industry's ability to meet market requirements
• providing greater value-added opportunities

through development and implementation across the chain of food safety and food quality systems.

To achieve our shared goals we will take the following measures:

• Support food safety
  • Offer programs, funding and technical assistance to develop and implement government-recognized systems
  • Assist industry to develop training materials and courses
  • Establish national, credible government oversight
  • Work towards national mechanism for decision-making and enhance public health surveillance
  • Promote international acceptance of Canadian products
  • Establish national recognition programs, including funding and technical assistance where appropriate
• Support traceability
  • Provide funding, technical support for traceability and IP
  • Assist in development of data management standards
  • Support traceability systems at the retail level
• Coordinate and strengthen research and development

Environment - Governments and industry working together will achieve the goals of:

• Reducing risks and providing benefits to health of
• water, with priority on nutrients, pathogens, pesticides and water conservation
• soils, with priority on soil organic matter and erosion
• air and the atmosphere, with priority on particulate matter, odours, and greenhouse gas emissions
• Ensuring compatibility between biodiversity and agriculture
• with priority on habitat availability, species at risk, and economic damage to agriculture from wildlife

The emphasis will be on comprehensive coverage of planning:

• Governments will work in collaboration with the sector and other stakeholders towards the goal of
• all producers completing a basic environmental scan to determine if they are candidates for farm planning
• all identified candidates completing a farm environmental plan or participating in an equivalent plan
• Planning will be built on beneficial practices in the management of nutrients, pests, land and water, nuisances and biodiversity

To support comprehensive action we will take the following measures:

• Increase information and understanding
• develop and use common indicators and analytical tools
• develop government environmental monitoring networks
• Provide stewardship tools and build capacity
• conduct R&D; to increase understanding, develop better production practices and establish benchmarks
• assess technologies and provide information to the sector
• make available sophisticated land management tools
• Support planning efforts
• provide funding and technical support to encourage the completion of environmental scans
• provide similar assistance for completion of environmental plans
• Provide incentives for action
• establish cost-shared programs to address environmental risks in agriculture
• study regulations with a view to sharing best practices
• Secure benefits from environmental action
• develop and make available to producers a voluntary farm environmental certification system
• promote the development of “green” agricultural goods and services and related market opportunities

Science and Innovation - Governments and industry working together will achieve the goals of:

• Realigning public science resources
• realigning and increasing science investments
• increasing investment sourced from outside the agriculture sector
• Coordinating science efforts along the value chain
• expanding and strengthening links with science community
• improving technology transfer, coordination and communication
• Creating an innovation climate
• accelerating adoption of innovation, but maintain sound science
• ensuring science human resource needs are met
• fostering a supportive climate for investment
• better using intellectual property to enhance growth

and measure progress through changes in investment levels, the degree of coordination along the value chain, and extent of innovation in sector.

To achieve our shared goals we will take the following measures:

• Realign public science resources
• conduct benchmark study on current investment levels
• develop and implement action plan to realign investment
• promote the action plan broadly in science community
• Coordinate efforts along the value chain
• develop common information database on selected commodities
• develop a strategy for strengthening linkages with possible actions to include an innovation summit, pilot projects, and Web sites, among others
• Create an innovation climate
• undertake a range of initiatives to facilitate innovation and new economic opportunities in the sector, such as promotion of business climate policies
• assess human resource and related infrastructure needs
• consult on how intellectual property management could better serve the sector
• articulate an investment development strategy

Renewal - Governments will work with the sector on the goals of assisting farmers to:

• Increase their profitability
• Make choices about sources of income
• Meet market and consumer demands in food safety, food quality, and environment
• Capture opportunities from science and innovation

with access to a range of services for beginning farmers, mid-career farmers, and farmers who choose to pursue options off the farm.

To achieve our shared goals we will take the following measures:

• Develop joint public-private consensus on skills
• Promote greater use of advice, business planning
• Make available benchmark, marketing information
• Support management and consulting services
• Develop networks to pass on benefits of innovation
• Promote access to capital
• Provide access to training and support for farmers who wish to pursue off-farm opportunities

Business Risk Management - Several factors have confirmed the need for program change

• The Safety Nets Review underlined the need for changes
• In the first round of consultations on the new policy framework, producers agreed ...
• but said governments should build on the best of current programs
• Crop Insurance well regarded
• wide support for NISA

We will address the issues of the current programs:

• Crop Insurance
• coverage only available for mainstream crops
• producers see costs as too high
• administration is complex and expensive

• NISA
• lacks capacity to stabilize for many farm operators
• doesn't provide incentives for business change
• gives permanent income support to some, but does not reach everyone

Working within the key principles agreed by Ministers

• Minimize risk of trade action
• Encourage whole farm risk management and use of private risk management tools
• Support market-based diversification
• Contribute to investments in technology, food safety, environment
• Simple to administer and easy to understand
• Be cost-shared and financially sustainable

To enhance our approach we will take the following measures:

• Insurance
  • Build Crop Insurance into a range of new products
  • Support private-sector development of business interruption insurance
• Stabilization
  • Build NISA into a flexible and profit-focussed stabilization tool
• Investment
  • Enable investment

Additional measures include:

• Management of cash flow will be assisted by maintaining advance payment programs
• And finally, CFIP and companion programs would be sunsetted
• given that crop insurance and NISA will be significantly expanded and deepened
• governments will review potential gaps to ensure coverage remains comprehensive

Getting maximum results from the new framework will depend on:

• Securing recognition for Canada's achievements
• safety and environmental sustainability of production
• capacity to deliver on specific quality attributes
• continuous innovation
• Ensuring industry can get its products into foreign markets

A comprehensive branding campaign will be developed:

• Aimed at key, fast-growing markets
• With consistent branding messages
• That advance trade interests of sector
• And demonstrate international leadership on technical trade issues

along with a comprehensive strategy to leverage the Agricultural Policy Framework internationally.

In support of the APF, the federal government has announced the following funding:

• New federal funding - 5.2 billion
• Funding for the APF - 3.4 billion
• Bridge income assistance - 1.2 billion
• Accelerating the benefits of the APF - 589 million
  • Drought measures
  • Environmental action
  • Tools to improve global market access for Canadian products
  • Innovation
  • Rural development and cooperatives
• Provincial matching - 2.9 billion
• Total package worth - 8.1 billion

Progress to date and next steps

• In Halifax, 7 provinces and 2 territories signed or initialed the agreement
• Negotiations on programming and implementation details have started
• Additional opportunities for sector and stakeholder participation in discussions will be provided as details are developed