Under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership, governments continue to support the development of new risk management tools that reflect the changing nature of the business.

Building on the successes of Growing Forward 2, the AgriRisk Initiatives Program has been renewed under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership. Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay today announced that the $55 million programme will encourage partnerships between agriculture industry stakeholders, researchers, and federal, provincial and territorial governments to proactively explore and develop new risk management products and services for the agricultural sector.

Funding is available under two components: Research and Development and Administrative Capacity Building. In response to recommendations received from the BRM Review Expert Panel, priority will be given to proposals for industry-led projects to develop new and innovative business risk management tools.

"Canada's hard-working farmers constantly face volatility and unpredictability in their business. Our Government is launching this renewed AgriRisk programme to help protect our hardworking farmers from the risks they face so they can continue to grow the economy and create good, well-paying jobs. This announcement responds to what we heard from the external advisory panel on business risk management," said Lawrence MacAulay.

Quick Facts

• The AgriRisk Initiatives (ARI) program supports the development of new risk management tools for use in the agriculture sector. ARI is a Canadian Agricultural Partnership Business Risk Management (BRM) initiative
• The Research and Development component provides funding for the research and development of potential new private sector or industry-led, tools to assist the industry in addressing risks. Applications for the Research and Development component are now available, and will be accepted until September 28th, 2018
• MicroGrants, a new category under the Research and Development component, will provide up to $25,000 per year in funding for academic research proposals that explore the development of alternative risk management tools or, propose different ways to address issues with existing BRM programs
• The Administrative Capacity Building component provides funding to build administrative capacity for the delivery of new risk management tools. Applications are now available and being accepted
• The BRM Review External Panel of Experts presented a series of recommendations to FPT Ministers, including a recommendation to support the development of industry-led "top-up" tools to provide farmers with flexibility in addressing losses not currently covered in the BRM suite

As reported by the AAFC