Released on March 26, 1999
Agriculture and Food Minister Eric Upshall said today's budgetreflects the province's continuing commitment to agriculture, our most
important industry.
"The Government of Saskatchewan recognizes the value of the
agriculture and food industry to the economic well-being of our
province," Upshall said. "We have demonstrated our commitment to
ensuring Saskatchewan farmers have access to safety nets and disaster
programming.
"Saskatchewan is contributing $10 million to a federal-provincial
one-time enhancement of $85 million to the Net Income Stabilization
Account (NISA) program. This is in addition to the ongoing funding
for the base NISA. NISA is designed to help farmers stabilize their
incomes by encouraging them to put away money in their NISA accounts
in good times in order to use those funds for major downturns in the
agriculture sector.
"Saskatchewan also committed $140 million to ensure farmers have
access to the federal Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance (AIDA)
program. While the program is limited in some ways, the federal money
will be used towards supporting our producers," Upshall said.
In December, the province announced a short-term loan program for
the hog industry to assist Saskatchewan hog producers by helping
them until the AIDA program is available. The program loans up
to $40 per market hog and $10 per weanling on hogs marketed
Nov. 1, 1998, to May 29, 1999. Currently, almost 200 producers
have received loans of over $6 million.
Saskatchewan ensures that farmers have access to an adequate crop
insurance program to protect against shortfalls. "The program
has been made simpler and more cost effective as requested by
producers. Crop insurance premiums are now about 40 per cent
lower this year for each $1 of coverage than in 1996. We
continue to make crop insurance more supportive to the
diversification of the crops sector by adding new crops to the
program. Coriander and caraway have been added for 1999,"
Upshall said.
"Saskatchewan continues to provide more agriculture programming
to farmers relative to its tax base than any other government in
Canada. We do this because it is one of our most important
industries."
Upshall said a healthy agriculture and food sector is important
to creating and maintaining jobs in the province. "Investing in
diversification and development opportunities and in safety nets
to secure the environment for people to invest their skills and
resources builds on our strengths and helps the provincial
economy grow. Agriculture and food are major contributors to
Saskatchewan's economy and the government's financial commitments
reflect the importance of that contribution."
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For more information, contact:
Hal Cushon
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
Regina
Phone: (306)787-5961