Nearly 500 farmers who owed Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. money are out of the program.
They were among 3,803 who received letters in mid-March asking them to pay their balances, make arrangements for payments or face cancellation of their contracts.
On April 13 agriculture minister Mark Wartman said 1,481 producers had paid their accounts in full and 1,828 had made arrangements to make payments until June 30.
That left 494 cancelled contracts, the highest number since 1998-99.
Wartman said some of those producers have opted to farm without insurance and others have left the industry. He said he is concerned about both groups.
Read Also
Huge Black Sea flax crop to provide stiff competition
Russia and Kazakhstan harvested huge flax crops and will be providing stiff competition in China and the EU.
The fact that producers couldn’t set up a repayment schedule shows the severity of the financial situation, he added.
“The agriculture crisis this year is more pronounced.”
Wartman said he is starting to hear concerns from local lenders that debt to equity ratios are stretched too far and they are worried about rewriting operating loans.
He said this is a new twist in the farm income crisis. Until now lenders have been confident in their ability to help farmers, but some of the smaller credit unions recently told him that is becoming more difficult.
“Things are getting much, much tighter.”
Government help
Saskatchewan Party agriculture critic Bob Bjornerud said that’s why the government should have extended a helping hand to crop insurance customers who owed money.
He said a three-month extension to the deadline wouldn’t have cost the corporation anything and would have given farmers time to move grain and achieve cash flow.
Without crop insurance farmers won’t be able to apply for cash advances or operating loans, Bjornerud said.
The situation is “not looking good for the future.”
He suggested changes could have been made to crop insurance to make the program better for farmers by decreasing premium costs and increasing coverage.
Wartman said he was considering reintroducing spot loss hail coverage, but it couldn’t be implemented in time for the upcoming crop year.
