The Alberta Wheat Commission has announced a new tool to help crop, livestock and honey producers manage cash flow throughout the year.

AWC will now be providing cash advances through FarmCash under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s federal Advance payments program.

Chair Kevin Bender says they looked into after hearing back from producers.

“We heard from a number that said we should consider doing this,” said Bender.  “We looked at it, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada strongly encouraged us to undertake it so we did some research and investigated, and said, yeah, this looks like an option we could undertake and provide to our growers.”

CFO Syeda Kurram explains the research they put into the project including having a focus group weigh in on it.

“We had been in touch in with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to ensure when we launched the program that it was covering all the aspects that it is required under the act and we also had to gather information, as well as favour from the producers before we started the program.”

“We went through a lot of cash flow analysis and business analysis to see what are the challenges were and how we could overcome those challenges.”

 She says this program has a lot going for it.

“The efficient application process, we’re committed to providing excellent customer service as we’ve already been providing that to all farmers across Alberta handling their checkoff fee and any proceeds from this program goes towards the Alberta Agriculture sector.”

 The program comes online on September 1.

For more on it click here.