Farm Financial Health Report sets out numerous challenges facing farmers.Ottawa--Canadian farmers face tremendous pressure on their financial and mental health, says the Canadian Federation of Agriculture which is proposing 18 ways to help them cope.The pressure comes from soaring prices for critical farm inputs along with high inflation, interest rates and the carbon tax, CFA says in its Farm Financial Health Report.“Farmers across Canada have demonstrated tremendous resilience in the face of several domestic and global events including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and extreme climate events at home and abroad,” the report said.“While most Canadian farmers have managed to stay afloat, largely due to high commodity prices and farm cash receipts that increased 14.8 per cent over 2021 levels, the ongoing impact of high inflation, matched with increasing interest rates, is beginning to take a serious toll on the operating margins of Canadian producers.”Net farm income dropped 8.3 per cent in 2022, because the growth in expenses outpaced the rise in farm income and total farm operating expenses after rebates increased by 21.2 per cent in 2022, the largest gain since 1974.CFA's recommendations focus on helping farmers “manage the increasing cost of production and navigate challenging regulatory barriers, but also to help them mitigate the effects of climate change and support the next generation of farmers.”They would give producers “the flexibility and tools they need to weather the current financial climate and support the transition to a lower missions economy.”The recommendations include extending the farm carbon tax exemption to natural gas and propane, developing a Critical Farm Input Strategy to ensure a long-term, stable source for critical farm inputs and making the Advance Payments Program permanent more responsive to higher production costs.As well, there should be an accelerated capital cost allowance across all classes of farm equipment to allow producers to depreciate 100 per cent of the cost of new equipment in the first year. A national grant program modelled after the Canada Digital Adoption Program would support on-farm risk management planning and mitigation.Business risk management programs should be made responsive, predictable, and accessible for all types of extreme weather events and AgriStability coverage should have an 85 per cent reference margin to improve participation, predictability and levels of support for producers.An inclusive Sustainable Agriculture Strategy should be launched with ambitious funding to cover the costs of the required incentives, research, and knowledge transfer activities connected with the inter-related demands of environmental, economic and social sustainability.Canada needs to increase its advocacy for the elimination of non-tariff trade barriers in international trade agreements and should ensure through legislation there are no additional access to supply-managed sectors in future trade agreements.The government should provide financial support to establish a Secretariat to support implementation of the National Workforce Strategy for Agriculture and Food and Beverage Manufacturing.It should also increase the capital gains exemption for farmland sales above $1 million limit to be more in line with current market farmland values.The Pest Management Regulatory Agency should provide timely, transparent and science-based decisions to help Canadian producers remain globally competitive.Farms should be exempt from filing the Underused Housing Tax and farmers should be allowed the right to repair their own machinery.The government should supply financial support for the creation of a Grocery Code Adjudication Office as part of an industry-led Grocery Industry Code of Conduct.A pilot test of extended railway interswitching should be extended beyond 160 kilometres and tested for more than 18 months.It should also amend the Income Tax Act to allow sibling shareholders to pass a non-controlling share of their ownership to the next generation.The full report can be found at www.cfa-fca.ca/farm-financial-health-report/