Farmers in northern Alberta facing crop losses because of excess rain can file for full refunds on hail insurance premiums booked through Agriculture Financial Services Corp.
The agency announced Aug. 19 that producers with non-viable crops in the northeast, northwest and Peace regions and who also had hail endorsement or straight hail insurance can apply for full refunds on those premiums.
“We realize this won’t fix the problem, but it is something AFSC can do to help farmers impacted by these extreme moisture conditions,” AFSC interim chief executive officer Jerry Bouma said in a news release announcing the plan.
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Producers with AFSC hail insurance and more than 10 percent flooded or non-viable acres can declare them as write-offs and apply for the refund. Generally no refunds are possible after July 31 of an insured year, but in this case farmers can apply for hail insurance premium refunds until Sept. 11.
No refunds are available for annual crop production insurance, AFSC said.
Applicants will require an AFSC Connect account in order to apply and must provide legal land descriptions of the affected fields, crop type, acres insured and number of non-viable acres. Non-viable is defined as not being worth harvesting.
A tutorial on the process is available on the corporation’s website.
Several rural municipalities in Alberta’s northwest and in the Peace River region declared agricultural states of disaster, some as early as June of this year.
The most recent Alberta crop report noted regions around Barrhead, Edmonton, Leduc, Drayton Valley and Athabasca are struggling with excessive soil moisture, which has delayed crop maturity.
Details on the AFSC refund offer can be found at afsc.ca/news/afsc-refunding-hail-premiums-on-crops-deemed-non-viable-due-to-excess-moisture.
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