While land ownership is under provincial jurisdiction in Canada, the federal government does have a role in assuring farmland remains attainable and affordable for Canadian farmers, says the Senate agriculture committee.In a report entitled Growing Concern, How to Keep Farmland in the Hands of Canadian Farmers, the committee called for cooperation between the federal and provincial governments “to facilitate land-use planning and to better protect farmland for agricultural uses.”While the provinces could do a better job ensuring farmland remains in production, the federal government should work at strengthening the financial capacity of farmers including the next generation, the report said.For starters, the Finance Department should “explore the possibility of increasing the amount of the lifetime capital gains exemption for qualified farm property to make it easier for new farmers to acquire farmland.”As well, the report said the Agriculture Department should work with Statistics Canada and Natural Resources Canada “to improve the data on the classification and use of farmland.”That would require the federal departments to “better cooperate with provincial departments in order to keep them informed about technological advances in imaging and remote sensing, and the way in which the resulting soil maps could assist provincial land-use planning.”It also recommended the Innovation Department “renew the funding for the national research project on farmland protection through the SocialSciences and Humanities Research Council. This renewal would encourage cooperation between provincial land-use planning experts and support the development of standardized analytical frameworks and tools that would enable harmonized land-use planning data to be obtained for all provinces.”Ottawa and the provinces should also better track land transactions to understand what's happening with the country's arable land and to ensure farmland is retained for agricultural purposes.The committee launched its study of the farmland issue back in October 2016 and in the process heard from about 60 witnesses from the agricultural, academic and financial sectors, conservation organizations as well as provincial and federal governments. It also studied how other countries deal with the issue.The report said a variety of factors have contributed to the rising value of farmland including the transition to larger farmers to achieve economies of scale, investments by non-agricultural interests, environmental issues and policies, demographic pressures, and an aging population.“Farmers, including the next generation, sometimes do not have the borrowing capacity to handle these higher prices,” it said. Even with programs to make it easier to acquire farmland, “some farmers are turning to alternative financing options provided by non-agricultural investors.These alternatives have sparked concerns about their potential impacts on the production structure and the ability of farmers to own their operations.”There are concerns this land could be diverted from agriculture and “eventually be sold for other purposes. To this end, strengthening the legislative framework for farmland protection would make a major difference.”During other studies, the committee “heard concerns regarding the rising costs of farmland in Canada, including how families could pass their farms from generation to generation and the ability of new entrants to afford to buy land.“The family farm has been the backbone of rural Canada for generations. The committee felt it would be remiss if it did not undertake a study on the acquisition of farmland in Canada and its potential impact on the farming sector to address these concerns.”According to the 2011 Census of Agriculture, farm area accounted for about 7 per cent of the total land base in Canada, or about 65 million hectares. More than two-thirds of this land is considered arable, meaning it has the potential for crop production.Between 1990 and 2010, about 3,000 hectares of cropland a year was converted to urban development, the report said.The average increase in farmland prices across Canada was almost 10 per cent in 2015. The largest increases were in Alberta, Manitoba, and Quebec while Ontario it was close to 7 per cent. However it was highest in Ontario at about $10,000 per acre. British Columbia and Quebec followed with almost $5,400 and $5,200 per acre, respectively.Higher farm commodity prices led to increased farm incomes, which couple with relatively low interest rates “have created relatively high demand for farmland among farmers in order to remain competitive by benefiting from economies of scale.”The report did not draw a conclusion about the impact of foreign investment on farmland prices but quoted a number of witnesses who thought the danger was overrated.It said that Statistics Canada reported an increase in land rented or leased by private interests from 2 per cent in 1986 to 27 per cent in 2011.The report said there are concerns that this type of ownership “makes farmers employees rather than owners and exposes them to additional risks because of rising rents. They are also concerned about potential changes to the production structure resulting from the loss of family farms and a shift to large-scale farms.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.