The first payments will start rolling out this week under the 2017-18 Federal Cash Advance Payments Program.

The Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA) handles the applications and processing of the program, Dave Gallant is the Director of Finance and Operations.

He says they handle cash advances for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. for 45 different commodities.

"It gives farmers access to $100,000 of interest-free money and an additional $300,000 at the prime rate (CIBC prime rate is currently 2.7%)," Gallant said. "It's there to help farmers to get the flexibility to market their crop when they want to market their crop and can achieve maximum value for their farm. Certainly, it will help them put their crop in the ground this spring."

He also spoke about the changes for this year.

"In addition to crop insurance and AgriStability, CCGA will now be accepting global ag risk solutions production cost insurance as a form of security on the program," he said."We're also going down to one application form instead of a provincial form, so now regardless of what province a farmer farms in one application form for all provinces. We've also added quinoa to our list of eligible commodities this year."     

Farmers wanting to apply for a cash advance are encouraged to call the Canadian Canola Growers Association office in Winnipeg (1-866-745-2256) or they apply online at www.ccga.ca.