(Manitoba Co-operator file photo by Laura Rance)

Advance payment program widened, streamlined

More types of livestock will be eligible and more types of security will be allowed for Canadian farmers to get federally-backed advance payments starting this year. Amendments to the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act (AMPA), made last February as part of the former Conservative government’s omnibus Agricultural Growth Act, have made regulatory changes possible for the

(Country Guide file photo)

Canada ratifies UPOV ’91 seed treaty

Canadian crop commodity groups are hailing the federal government’s move to ratify Canada’s participation in the international UPOV ’91 treaty as a signal the country is “open for national and international investment.” Canada’s representatives to the World Trade Organization, on Friday in Geneva, deposited the government’s “instrument of ratification” for the 1991 Act of the


Gerry Ritz, Canadian Agriculture MInister

Strong support as Agricultural Growth Act becomes law

The main dissenter is the National Farmers Union. KAP wants farmers to be consulted on the regulations

There was applause here when plant breeders, seed companies and farmers at the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale heard the Agricultural Growth Act with its stronger intellectual property rights was about to receive royal assent. Immediately following the bill becoming law last week, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz tabled a treaty in Parliament

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, shown here last month in Saskatoon, on Friday announced royal assent for his Bill C-18, the Agricultural Growth Act. (Agr.gc.ca)

Ritz’s Agricultural Growth Act now law

Banff — There was applause here when plant breeders, seed companies and farmers at the Prairie Recommending Committee for Wheat, Rye and Triticale heard the Agricultural Growth Act, with its stronger intellectual property rights, was about to receive royal assent. Immediately after the bill received royal assent Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz tabled a treaty