After a recent survey of producers in the region expressed opposition to large institutions owning farmland, on November 4th Saskatchewan’s Agriculture Minister, Lyle Stewart announced a new program to sell government owned, or Crown, land.
“The provincial government is probably the largest institutional owner of farmland and owning farmland is not a business the government needs to be in,” said Stewart in the official announcement.
The new program, which is effective immediately, will offer incentives for the purchase of any government owned agricultural land that has no public and low environmental benefit. Current lessees will be eligible for a 15 percent discount on the sale until March 31, 2016, 10 percent for the remainder of 2016 and five percent in 2017. If the land is not purchased, leasing will still be available but for land that is or has been cultivated rates will be at a 15 percent higher premium in 2016 and 30 percent premium in 2017.
Much like the Agricultural Crown Land Sale Program that the government conducted from 2008 to 2014 and sold 500,000 acres of Crown land, this sale is expected to sell 600,000 acres of land.
Stewart reiterated, “Our first priority for sale is cultivated lands as they are easily identifiable and the least likely to have any ecological or environmental value because they are already broken. This program allows Saskatchewan farmers and ranchers, individuals who have managed the land for the better part of a century, to purchase this land and realize the benefits of ownership.”