About the evaluation
- The Office of Audit and Evaluation at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) conducted an evaluation of the programs under the Agricultural Marketing Programs Act (AMPA) to assess relevance, design and delivery, and performance (including efficiency and effectiveness).
- The evaluation assessed AMPA program activities between 2019-20 to 2024-25, with a focus on the Advance Payments Program (APP). Multiple lines of evidence were employed, including a document and literature review, primary and secondary data analysis, stakeholder interviews and a producer survey.
Agricultural Marketing Programs Act summary
- The APP provides producers with access to short-term cash flow to market their products while the Price Pooling Program offers price guarantees for cooperatives and the Government Purchases Program enables the Minister to stabilize agricultural markets.
- The APP is administered through third-party producer organizations that provide producers guaranteed loans with an interest-free portion paid by AAFC (up to $100,000) and an interest-bearing portion paid by the producer.
What we found
Relevance
- The APP provides necessary access to cash flow for less experienced producers, small or medium-sized farms and niche commodities most vulnerable to market volatility.
- The APP complements AAFC’s other sector risk programs and is unique in providing national coverage for a range of agricultural commodities and favourable loan terms.
Design and delivery
- Ad hoc increases to the interest-free limit strained program resources impacting administrator cost-recovery and producers’ financial management plans.
- Consolidation and an absence of new administrators creates risk for producer access to the APP.
Performance (efficiency and effectiveness)
- AAFC’s interest expenses have more than doubled since 2019 due to temporary increases to the interest-free limit but administrative efficiency is similar to other programs.
- The program secured low-cost capital for producers, but large administrators continue to secure better interest rates and profit from a greater spread on interest-bearing loans.
- Participation targets were met in 2 of 5 years; however, smaller, less experienced producers are underrepresented in the program. The APP enabled producers to improve financial resilience by delaying the marketing of products.
Recommendations
Recommendation 1: The Assistant Deputy Minister of Programs Branch should implement solutions to minimize the adverse impacts of short-term program changes on producers and administrators.
Recommendation 2: The Assistant Deputy Minister of Programs Branch should address administrator consolidation risk by developing and executing a plan to better support producers when administrators exit the program.
Recommendation 3: The Assistant Deputy Minister of Programs Branch should implement a strategy to improve access for underrepresented producer groups.
Management response and action plan
Management agrees with the evaluation recommendations and has developed an action plan to address them by the 2027 program year.