P.E.I. farmers are getting priced out of the market for new land, say farm groups, and poor enforcement of the Lands Protection Act may be part of the problem.
From 2018 to 2023 prices for farmland on P.E.I. rose 83 per cent, according to a report released by Statistics Canada late last month. It was the fastest increase in prices in the country.
At $6,432 per acre in 2023, prices were 30 per cent higher than the national average.
“It’s difficult to invest, difficult to grow, especially for younger farmers,” said Travis Cummiskey, youth district director on P.E.I. for the National Farmers Union.
With higher prices to purchase land have come higher prices to rent it, Cummiskey said. Fields that might have been rented for $50 an acre a decade ago might now cost $100 or more, he said.
Younger farmers in particular may have a desire to cultivate more land, he said. As children grow older and take more of a role in farm operations, parents may look to expand their operations to increase revenues so the new generation can get paid.
“We are pricing our next generation of Island farmers out of the industry,” said Donald Killorn, executive director of the P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture.
“We have to take steps as a province to ensure access for that next generation so that we continue to have an Island-owned agriculture industry.”
‘An increasingly scarce asset’
Many factors are working together to bring up land prices. Some of these are out of provincial government control.
“It extends beyond our province to across the country, across North America, around the world,” Killorn said.
“Farmland has become an increasingly scarce asset. Institutions, governments, wealthy individuals have identified it as a very solid investment.”
