Edmonton – Changes to Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC)’s AgriStability program will reduce paperwork and lower costs for producers.
Farmers are vital to Alberta’s economy, providing essential food resources and driving rural prosperity, yet they often face burdensome paperwork and high accounting fees that hinder their productivity. Governments are making changes to the AgriStability program to address these challenges.
A new option to align AgriStability reporting with tax filing in 2025 will result in less paperwork, reduce accounting fees, and make enrolment and participation in the program much easier. An accelerated deadline to submit program forms to AFSC will lead to earlier payment. Enrolling in AgriStability can also provide producers access to other credit options like the federal Advance Payments Program, which offers low-cost cash advances.
AgriStability is an individual, whole-farm, margin-based program that helps producers who experience margin declines greater than 30% due to production loss, adverse market conditions and increased costs. In 2023, AgriStability also increased compensation for margin declines exceeding 30%, offering 80 cents per dollar of decline, up from the previous rate of 70 cents.
Producers rely on business risk management programs to offset the financial impact of many challenges. AgriStability provides income stabilization protection to help producers manage large margin declines that threaten their farm’s viability.
Risk management is critical in farming and each producer needs to examine their situation and the tools available before making decisions. AFSC has a robust suite of lending, business risk management and insurance options that producers can access.
“Farmers can often face uncertainty, and programs like AgriStability help them to protect their operations. To make things a little bit easier, we’ve made changes to the AgriStability program that will reduce paperwork, so our farmers can get the support they need, faster, and continue producing top-quality products.” – Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food