Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a pleasure to be here.
To tell you a little bit about the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, CFA is a federation of farm organizations. It counts as its members a general farm organization out of every province as well as numerous national commodity organizations. By virtue of our membership, we represent every agricultural commodity that's produced in every region of Canada.
To preface my comments on the issue that's in front of us, let me also say that Canadian farmers are coming out of the worst four years of net income in their entire history. They have record farm debt. I say that not because this is the committee to ask for more money for farmers, but because the challenge of net income has resulted in farmers' increasing their productivity, achieving better efficiencies, and an emphasis on farmers' reducing their input costs.
This in turn has had an influence on agriculture's contribution to the level of phosphorus in our waterways in Canada. How has that happened? Well, to reduce their input cost, farmers have gone to much more soil testing, and much more specific soil testing to determine what level of fertilizer they need to apply. They have much better management of spreading animal nutrients on land, as well as the volume and/or level of animal nutrients that are spread on the land; and much better erosion prevention, because again, this impacts on productivity and efficiency. There is no over-fertilization. Farmers simply can't afford not to make sure that the equilibrium in fertilizer application and what the crop can utilize isn't thrown out of whack. They're quite prepared to go to any sort of education program that will help them do all of these things much better.
Farmers are also quite willing to be accountable and responsible. The only thing farmers are not willing to be is responsible or accountable for a disproportionate level of blame for any problem we might have.
We know that fertilizer is absolutely essential in the production of food and fibre and that animal nutrients are inevitable, so what is the solution? What is the key?
We believe that management is the solution and the key. For years farmers have implemented and developed better and better nutrient management plans and improved their environmental farm plans and best management practices. That is exactly why the Canadian Federation of Agriculture members have put so much emphasis on what we call a public goods and services pillar in the next generation of the agricultural policy framework. We believe that good incentive-based public goods and services initiatives in the agricultural policy framework will help farmers do what they otherwise could not afford to do.
For example, some of you may have heard of the agricultural land use services initiative, which we've talked about for quite some time. It's an incentive-based program that helps farmers perhaps develop bigger buffer zones. It helps farmers take unproductive land out of production. They could take land that is prone to erosion out of production, but there would be incentives applied to that. They also believe that any of these actions helps meet social expectations.
They know they can't pass these added costs on to the marketplace, so they believe the public should help them pay for some of the costs of implementation through incentive-based programs.
This is a win-win-win. First of all, it's a win for farmers and the general public because it creates a stronger crosswalk between farmers and the public in recognizing that farmers are trying to meet social expectations. This helps farmers do what they otherwise could not afford to do. It's a win for governments because it would eventually decrease the load on business risk management money or, as some of you may know them, safety net programs. It would be a win again for the general public because it would help preserve Canada's natural capital.
Again, let me say that farmers are willing to be accountable and responsible, not for more than their contribution to the challenge or situation we have at hand, but to continue to improve what we think is the key and solution to any challenges with phosphorus, and that is best management practices, animal nutrient management, as well as environmental farm plans.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.