Canada - RMP to be extended for crops, adapted for livestock

Tuesday's Ontario budget commits the province's ag ministry to extend its risk management program (RMP) past its pilot stage, and to broaden its coverage beyond grains and oilseeds to include cattle, hogs, sheep and veal.

Lobbying efforts to make the RMP permanent, with or without federal co-funding, have been a priority in recent weeks for most of Ontario's farm groups, many of which made their approval known Tuesday.

The cost of these programs is to be shared, for now, between the province and farmers, the budget noted. Producers will pay 30 per cent of the program's overall cost.

"The federal government refused to participate in the previous RMP pilot, but Ontario challenges it to pay its traditional 60 per cent share to help farmers in the province grow forward," the province said.

"In the absence of federal government participation, it is envisioned both the premiums and the program benefits would be scaled back accordingly," Ontario Pork and the OCA said in their joint release Tuesday.

The RMP, launched for crop producers in a three-year pilot form in 2007 and temporarily extended last summer to cover the 2010 crop year, has been administered by Agricorp.