With the end of the Crow Benefit and the Feed Freight Assistance (FFA) program, the government put aside hundreds of millions of dollars into various federal and provincial "adaptation" funds".
The idea behind this money was to help farmers adapt to new, much higher freight rates and feed costs. Farmers and others are supposed to use this money to examine and implement diversification and value-adding schemes. The money is being given out to fund the study of greenhouse efficiency, to adapt machinery to soybean production in Nova Scotia, to promote wild rice and Saskatoon berry jam in Saskatchewan, to study the feasibility of seasonal milk production on Vancouver Island in B.C., and to a host of other initiatives.
A new round of adaptation funding was approved on March 29th, 1999. The new funding amounts to $60 million. Funds are available in all provinces.
The termination of the Crow and the FFA program have cost farmers over $2.2 billion over the last four years. While $60 million is completely insufficient to help farmers "adapt" to such a loss, nevertheless, NFU members who are exploring new agricultural ventures may want to keep the adaptation money in mind.
For more information call the NFU National office.
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