ST. MICHAEL, Alta. – At a time when Mike Rudko would normally be putting his seeding equipment away, he was flying over his farm looking at the fields.
What he could see for miles around was water.
“It looked like northern Manitoba or northern Saskatchewan. It looked like one large lake with little islands,” said the St. Michael farmer of the sight at the beginning of June.
Last week he went up in an airplane again and not much had changed. Most of the fields were still covered in water.
Read Also
Short rapeseed crop may put China in a bind
Industry thinks China’s rapeseed crop is way smaller than the official government estimate. The country’s canola imports will also be down, so there will be a lot of unmet demand.
“It hasn’t changed much in a month and a half,” said Rudko, during the Farm Income Disaster Program meeting here.
“There is so much visible water standing on our fields it’s totally incredible.”
Like most of the 60 farmers at the meeting and the farmers at the 10 previous meetings in northern Alberta, he seeded less than half his usual crop. Constant rain kept farmers off the field last fall and this spring.
“This is the worst year in 40 or 50 years,” said Rick Hancheruk of St. Michael.
“The old people don’t remember as much water. We’ve never had this. It’s like the Great Lakes.”
One of his neighbors, desperate to seed, drove across a slough with the empty drill and carried the bags of seed and fertilizer across later with a tractor. Another neighbor used one four-wheel drive tractor to pull the drill and a second tractor to pull the first tractor.
Gerry Kucy said at least half of his St. Michael area farm is still under water: “I’ve got wet spots on my high spots.”
What took the farmers off their balers to the recreation centre in this village was to hear if they are eligible for some form of disaster assistance.
“I’m looking for some information and some clarification,” said Ed MacKay of Star, whose FIDP application was rejected. He is not eligible for help under the Net
Income Stabilization Account.
The provincial government has said it will no longer fund ad hoc disaster programs. Farmers must work with the existing income and disaster programs.
Most of the farmers were at the meeting to hear about Alberta’s FIDP program, which kicks in when a farmer’s income drops below 30 percent of the previous three years. They also heard about crop insurance, the federal government’s NISA program and the joint Alberta Disaster Recovery Program.
Alberta agriculture minister Ed Stelmach said he’s concerned many farmers don’t know about the programs.
“A lot of farmers don’t have all the information and an understanding of the farm support programs in Alberta. Somehow we have to improve communications to farmers that the programs are available.”
Payments slow in coming
The other concern he has heard at previous meetings is the lag in disaster payments.
Farmers who didn’t get a crop off last fall and seeded little this spring won’t have income for two years. The FIDP program doesn’t kick in until after the disastrous year ends as well.
“The majority of us are looking for help this year. Right now there is nothing available, or very little available,” Rudko told the group.
Roxanne Davignon, FIDP specialist, said many farmers are likely eligible for help even if they haven’t paid income tax in the past few years.
“It’s a very critical area that was made last year and continues to be made this year,” she told the group.
“You can’t tell if you’re eligible by your income tax statements.”
The income drop is based on previous farm income tax statements, but there are significant income and expense exclusions that make many farmers eligible.
In 1996, the program paid out $63.3 million to 4,943 applicants.
It expects to pay out $106 million for the 1997 crop year, or about $16,000 for each farmer. Because of the 10,000 applications expected, farmers only have to fill in the first page of the application before the July 31 deadline.
