Unfortunately, an article like this implies that prairie farmers are looking to benefit - which doesn't appear to be the case. While the price of fuel and fertilizer are acknowledged as increasing costs, they don't quite get the 'credit' due, and other costs are overlooked.
For ease, assume a 160-acre wheat crop. The farmer will have to pay for the seed and a seed treatment (to protect against seed- and soil-borne disease and early-season insect larvae), a grassy-weed herbicide and a broad-leaf herbicide (around $20 per acre for the grassy and $5 per acre for the broad-leaf), and increasingly, a fungicide, as the prairies have seen quite an increase in plant disease in the last 5 or so years ($7 per acre; fungicide usually requires 2 applications in a growing season - so $14 per acre total). These prices are based on the suggested retail price of a Canadian ag-chem company's products for 2007.
This lands a bill of around $6200 in the farmer's hands, for a quarter-section of land. If your average farm operates on 4-5 sections, that's up to $125,000 - not including the cost of seed and seed treatment, equipment costs, fuel, equipment maintenance, grain storage and transport fees, and so on. Now account for yield-loss due to insects, drought or (as has been the case the last 3 years) flooded-out fields, hail storms, etc.
I have had clients tell me that once they stop receiving payment for the oil- and gas-wells on their land, they will have to leave farming. I've also had clients take on second jobs to "support the farming habit", as they've put it. Things don't look to change, if the CWB continues to pay well below market price for grain.
Having mentioned ag-chemicals, organics is another interesting agri-trend. But take a read through this
2006 Business Week article about the "sustainability" of organics. Very interesting.