TORONTO — Ontario farmers battered by a strong dollar, high costs and low crop prices say they're grateful for $125 million more in provincial help announced Monday, but need the government and Ottawa to get together on a plan for longer-term assistance.

Now that Ontario has offered additional money, the federal government "definitely has to come to the table before spring planting,'' which is only five or six weeks away in some areas, said Greg Devries, chair of the Ontario Soybean Growers.

"We've got a period here now of five or six weeks when we need to see something happen, for the federal government to come to the table and help fill out what we need in the way of keeping our industry going,'' Devries said.

Before the spring planting season starts, $80 million will go to grain and oilseed producers to offset their losses on the 2005 crop, said Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky.

Another $35 million will go to producers of crops such as apples, peaches and vegetables to offset past losses, while the remaining $10 million will pay for a system to track Ontario livestock and poultry in order to strengthen emergency management.

Monday's announcement brings to $200 million the amount of assistance provided by both the federal and provincial governments to grain and oilseed producers for the hard-hit 2005 crop.

Dombrowsky said the province will continue to push federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl to come to the table to create a long-term assistance plan for farmers.

"We can not continue to do the one-offs,'' Dombrowsky said in an interview.

"We have not abandoned our commitment for the need for a multi-year strategy, (but) it's obvious the federal government is not going to be in a position to partner with us in time to get the money out the door so that's why we're acting today.''

Strahl is scheduled to sit down with provincial agriculture ministers March 20.

Plans for the previous federal government to spend $755 million on a long-term plan for grains and oilseed farmers were thwarted by the federal election, Dombrowsky said.

Ontario plans to pressure the new Conservative government to match the pledge by its predecessor, she added.

Devries said farmers have been hearing talk of a long-term plan for years, and have little faith that either level of government will come through this time.

"Over the last number of years we've gone to government looking for some long-term programming, something our producers can use when making business decisions,'' Devries said.

"Every spring we end up with an ad hoc program that sprinkles a little bit of money to help address the issue, and it doesn't go away.''

Producers are getting "tired and frustrated'' by the lack of long-term support from the government, he added.

"The dollar amounts never add up to really what's needed.''

An additional $50 million for grains and oilseeds farmers would help Canadian farmers compete against U.S. producers who have the safety net of long-term government assistance programs to back them up, Devries said.