The pressures of inflation, high interest rates, tax increases and global conflicts are having an impact on Ontario’s farmers.
That’s according to a new survey just released by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), where the majority of respondents indicated they were taking a pause on expansion projects, business growth, new technology investments, and land and equipment purchases.
Instead, they’re opting to maintain the status quo, with 68% keeping their business the same in 2023 and almost 71% intending to do the same for 2024.
At the same time, 62% have some degree of confidence in the outlook for Ontario’s farm sector in 2024 and 78.5% are somewhat to extremely confident in the outlook for their own farm business this year.
This Farm Business Confidence survey was open to all OFA members in December of last year, with participants submitting responses online.
I’m a dairy farmer near Meaford in the Georgian Bay area. I’m also a member of the OFA’s board of directors, currently holding one of our two Vice President positions, and surveys like this are extremely valuable to us as board members.
What’s important in my area of Grey County may be different from what is impacting farmers in Lambton or Renfrew counties, for example. Similarly, a greenhouse grower in an export-focused industry may have different challenges than a poultry producer in a sector that is focused on our domestic markets.
The OFA is a member-driven organization and it’s our job to set policy priorities, advocate on behalf of our members and make sure we take action on the issues that matter to them.
We regularly communicate with our members through meetings at the county and regional levels, newsletters, social media, trade shows and more, but surveys like this give us additional insights into what is on the minds of our members.
The results can confirm, for example, whether we’re on the right path with respect to the OFA’s advocacy priorities or if there are new issues that also need our attention.
In this case, respondents overall told us very clearly that reducing farm taxes was the number one policy priority they felt would be helpful to their farm business or their sector. Province-wide, 76% identified tax burden as the top policy priority, and it was a top three concern across every geography and income range.
This was followed by supporting farmers in dealing with high and continually rising energy costs, encouraging Ontarians to buy local food, which was particularly important to farmers in southern Ontario, and improving rural health care.
In Northern Ontario, compensation for crop damage by wildlife, which is a significant problem in the region, was the third most identified policy priority.
In the coming year, farmers in southern and eastern Ontario believe that high input costs, high interest rates and the cost to service debt, and the growing tax burden on farms will pose the biggest challenges for their farm businesses. In northern Ontario, rising insurance costs ranked in third spot behind input costs and interest rates.
These results very closely mirror OFA’s current advocacy priorities.
We’ve been pushing for easing of the federal carbon tax burden on food production. We’ve been urging the province to make new or continued investments in affordable energy, high speed internet, transportation infrastructure and rural healthcare.
And we’ve been encouraging the provincial government to supporting local food through actions like addressing chronic labour shortages in the sector and increasing support for the Risk Management Program.
We’ll be addressing these issues and others that impact Ontario’s ability to grow food, fuel, fibre and flowers later this month too when we head to Queens Park to meet with elected officials from all parties at our annual advocacy day.
Source : Farmersforum