Canadian Farmers Face Negative Returns

EDMONTON - Feb 17/06 - SNS -- Canadian grain and oilseed producers will face a terrible year in 2006 based on current price forecasts and projected costs of farming, argues University of Calgary economist Dr. Christopher Bruce in a report for the Alberta Grain and Oilseeds Producers Advocacy Trust.

He predicts producers will lose between CDN $54 and $77 per acre in 2006. This could mean a total loss to the industry in excess of one billion dollars.

There are over 19,000,000 acres cultivated by some 50,000 farmers in Alberta. In the absence of significant government intervention, high energy, land and labor costs will make grain and oilseeds production uneconomical for the foreseeable future.

Speaking on behalf of the Trust, former Alberta Agriculture Minister LeRoy Fjordbotten noted that the price of wheat is dramatically similar to the price enjoyed by farmers over 100 years ago.

It is Mr. Fjordbotten's view that "immediate action is necessary" to avert "widespread economic devastation in rural Alberta." He also called on the petroleum industry to step up and help in devising "a plan for long-term viability in Agriculture," noting that "the environmental and infrastructural benefits associated with the agricultural industry far surpasses the cost of saving the agriculture industry."