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By Alice McFarlane

Farmer Survey

Survey says financial woes main concern of farmers

Apr 6, 2020 | 4:18 PM

Cash flow is the number one issue facing Saskatchewan farmers, according to a recent survey.

The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) announced the results of its first study of the impact of COVID-19.

The results, which include data collected from Mar. 24 to Apr. 5 from over 250 Saskatchewan farmers, show that COVID-19 is affecting producers at the farm gate.

APAS President Todd Lewis said financial concerns were first on the list, which wasn’t surprising.

“It isn’t unusual, to be fair, especially at this time of year anyway,” Lewis told farmnewsNOW. “With the problems we’ve seen at the farm gate over the past couple of years with lower commodity prices, transportation issues and trade. It’s been a rough 24 months and this COVID-19 has added more uncertainty to the situation. We’re really not surprised it was a major concern for the people that took the survey.”

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Of the 116 respondents indicated they were experiencing some form of disruption to the purchase or delivery of farm inputs, 28 per cent noted disruptions to agronomy services, 27 per cent for fuel, and 23 per cent noted fertilizer disruptions. Lewis said he thinks there’s a perception there may be issues.

“I think the supply chain has worked pretty well,” he said. “I would say a lot of farmers have more of their inputs on hand than usual at this time of year. If the dealer has your seed or your chemical in store, most farmers that have storage on farm, they’ll get their hands on it and have it in place earlier than normal this year. So I think it’s a perceived problem. Over the next three to four weeks and through the seeding process if there are real delays, we’ll start to hear about it. It’s important to recognize this early so if there are things that can be done we can deal with it.”

APAS will continue these weekly surveys. Lewis said he hopes farmers will continue to participate.

“We’re going to have very similar questions next week and some new questions with different concerns as they arise,” he said. “There is a part of the survey where you can put new questions or flag new situations on a farm by farm basis. Communication is important. This is really unprecedented. If there are concerns at the farm gate we can pass them to the decision makers to make changes if necessary.”

The first survey results are available here.

The second survey will be open until April 12.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF