The federal government has offered to rewrite Manitoba’s crop insurance agreement to help Red River Valley farmers hit by the flood.
Under the current agreement, farmers have to buy unseeded acreage insurance on top of their basic crop insurance if they want to be compensated for not being able to plant their crops.
Federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said in an interview last week he would be prepared to make the insurance part of the basic package.
He said most other provinces included the coverage to compensate farmers hit by natural disaster even before seeding.
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But Manitoba’s agriculture minister said changing the program now would be unfair to the valley farmers who paid for unseeded acreage insurance.
Harry Enns said farmers owning about 18 percent of the land expected to be covered by water (about 90,000 acres) paid for the coverage by the deadline last August.
The insurance costs between 36 and 50 cents per acre, and the compensation is up to $40 per acre depending on soil type.
Some missed out
Enns said the change would likely enrage farmers who were hurt by other floods in the last few years but didn’t receive special consideration.
“To make an ad hoc adjustment to the program, that reflects on the premiums of everybody else.”
“The farmers who got flooded out in ’95 in the upper Assiniboine (valley) and got no compensation, they will then be asked to contribute to the difficulties that the Red River Valley farmers have.”
Enns said Goodale is offering safety net money that the province is hoping the federal government will put into a $3.4 million agri-food research fund.
He wants the federal government to wait until the flood waters clear before deciding what help it can offer farmers.
If crops are badly affected, Enns said the governments should compensate farmers through disaster assistance programs.
However, Enns noted rules for disaster assistance would have to be changed. Under current rules, farmers can’t be compensated for unseeded acres because they are able to buy insurance for it.
“We welcome any kind of support that the federal government may wish to extend, but not through the crop insurance program.”
