HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-03-16, Page 4512 - The Farm F.d111on9 Week of March 16'4 1983
row initiatives
*front page 11
directly to farmers will give
western farmers a competi-
tive advantage, is unjusti-
fied. First, says Whelan,
western farmers will be
paying all or part of that
money back in higher trans-
portation costs and secondly,
there isn't that much money
involved, on a per farm
basis. By 1985-86 the pay-
ment will probably amount to
about'$4,5Q per acre.
There will be new chal-
lenges and opportunities
created as a result of the
Crow Initiatives, and to help
farmers take advantage of
those opportunities, the fed-
eral government has commit-
ted $175 million for a five
year period, to launch some
new agri-food programs.
In general terms, we will
be spending $130 million in
direct assistance to prod-
ucers - this will cover things
like land improvement, in-
creased feed grain handling,
storage and drying equip-
ment, on farm demonstra-
tions and technology trans-
fer, energy conservation and
funding for food product
research," said Whelan.
Twentymillion dollars will
go for soil and water research
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not
in western Canada, but that
will have benefits for all of
Canada. There will also be
$25 million for market assist-
ance, including electronic
market information and sate-
llite crop reporting. The fed-
eral, goverter.:ent recently
provided assisthe
Ontario Cattlemen's Asso--
tion for their, pilot project on
electronic marketing ,of cat-
tle.
Canagrex
In a brief update on Cana-
grex, Whelan said he was
pleased the way the Bill has
been supported by farmers in
southwestern Ontario, the
federation of agriculture, the
ffeet eastern far
tobacco board and the white
bean board.
Whelan acknowledged the
opposition to the Bill from
some exporters, and from
some people "who simply
believe that no good can
possibly come from the fed-
eral government." Whelan
said those two camps are a
small minority within the
agri-food industry and he is=
cksifident the Bill will be
pas. -ed into. law.
Cal. tgrex will help our
agri-food industry to export
on an qual 4 footing with
competing countries by prov-
iding credit promotion, mar-
ket development, state to
state contracts and joint ven-
tures, stated Whelan. Cana-
grex will also be a forum to
bring together, on a purely
voluntary basis, the farmers
and processors and traders
who want t' expand into new
export markets.
At present our export ef-
forts are fragmented from
the point of view that many
of our trading .partners have
touble identifying who they
should be dealing with, he
said. Our efforts 'are also
restrictive in that many po-
tential exporters don't, have
the means to get involved in
world trading.
"Our farms, our democra-
tic institutions, our entire
ers
nation was built on co-oper-
ation. I don't see why we
can't co-operate in building
strong export markets, as
well," Whelan observed. He
pointed out that with recent
developments in the world
economy, the drop in oil
prices and interest rates, our
competitors in world trade
have become stronger, and
many of the markets we were
going after have become
poorer.
"Competitionis tougher
than ever, and we have got to
go out into the world market,
as one nation,. united, if we
are going to survive and
, prosper. That's the challenge
facing all Canadians today."
Program identifies farmers' problems
•from page 4
problems can be traced to the
willingness or no planning at
all.
The decision committee
found that there was too
much non-essential invest-
ment, most of it done on the
spur of the moment and most
of it financed by 100 per cent
borrowing. Financing should
be done by earned cash flow
and not by expected cash
flow.
Condemning impluse buy-
ing, Taylor said that just
because the neighgour's
farm came up for sale was
often the reason for buying
it, instead of returns from _
that farm to service the new
debt.
He said that it was no fairy
tale, but some had piled debt
on debt by borrowing to
service old debts, piling cost
on cost three times.
Too often the value of
assets was much lower than
assumed. This can make a
farm with a high debt tech-
nically bankrupt.
He advised everyone in
that position to sell assets,
change crops or bail out
while there is still some
equity left.
Another member of the
decision committee, Bob
Sanderson, saw two prime
reasons for farm problems.
High interest rates and low
income.
Much of this is due to over
expansion which causes ex-
tremes in income and often
an unproductive invest-
ment, he declared.
Of the total applications to
date under OFAAP, 20 per
cent are for swine farms, 15
per cent each for cash crop-
ping, dairy and beef, four per
cent for horticulture and
three per cent for tobacco.
Fifty per cent of all appli-
cants are under 35 years of
age. They are the victims of
poor economic times, Sand-
erson asserted. Prices were
lower than expected and
money cost was devastating.
He cautioned relatives,
and in particular parents, not
to over extend themselves on
behalf of their children. Too
many have not been able to
help their child and have
gone down with them in their
efforts. Thus two went
down, one of them uselessly.
Another reason for prob-
lems was too aggressive ex-
pansion. The reasoning often
went that if one is good, two
Turn to page 14•
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