Falling farm income, looming drought and trade problems are given as reasons for increased interest in gov’t program
More Saskatchewan farmers are considering enrolment in AgriStability as market woes and dry weather continue.
Shawn Jaques, chief executive officer of Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp., said participation declined in the last several years, but production and commodity prices were strong.
After the significant drop in farm income last year and now with drought looming large and the trade dispute with China escalating, he said interest in the program is growing. The enrolment deadline has been extended until July 2.
AgriStability is designed to cover a large margin decline. It kicks in for participants when their current year margin falls below 70 percent of their five-year reference margin.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“If you have a drop (due to) uncontrollable factors on your farm such as price, and we’re seeing potentially production issues, that’s what AgriStability is there to cover,” Jaques said.
Applying is simple, he said. Program administrators will ask for a name, location, the amount of acreage seeded and number of livestock.
“When you submit your 2019 application we will need some additional information such as ending inventories,” Jaques said.
“Have you deferred any income? Did you purchase any prepaid inputs? Quite often as producers we’ve already supplied that information to our accountants or to our financial institutions, so it isn’t as complicated to apply as some maybe think it is.”
Interested producers can apply online through AgConnect on the crop insurance website. There is a toll-free line producers can call for assistance.
Rae Groeneveld, manager of policy, program development and readiness at AgriStability, said slightly more than 12,000 enrolment notices have gone out.
“We’re expecting those numbers to grow as we head toward the July 2 deadline,” he said.
“That compares to last year when we had just under 11,000 enrolment notices that were paid by producers.”
Those numbers are based on income tax filing, rather than actual individual producers.
Last year, AgriStability covered about 52 percent of eligible farm cash receipts in the province.
Groeneveld also said about 1,700 applications from 2018 have been filed with about 700 processed.
Meanwhile, Jaques said officials are watching the dry conditions from several angles.
“We know that in particular livestock producers might be concerned with feed or grazing acres, and if they have acres of crop that they would like to graze at some point, they certainly can do that,” he said.
“There’s always this myth that crop insurance won’t let producers utilize that crop. That’s not true. You just need to notify us so we can do an appraisal.”
The corporation is getting questions from farmers wondering about viability. June 20 is the final seeding deadline and a crop is considered established if there is a viable seed in the ground by then.
“If seed is laying in the ground, then that’s a viable seed,” Jaques said.
“If it rains on June 25, that seed still has a chance to make a crop, so we say you need viable seed or viable plants by June 20.”
Customers should call their local offices with questions about establishment.
June 25 is the deadline to report seeded acres to SCIC.
Jaques said reports of flea beetle and cutworm damage are already coming in.
