There will be no AgriRecovery program for Saskatchewan farmers affected by disastrous weather this year, agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud said last week.
After paying out about $1.4 billion over the last two years to help farmers and ranchers deal with excessive moisture, both Ottawa and Regina say the coverage offered through Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. will have to do for 2012.
This year’s program includes the option to top up unseeded acreage coverage to as much as $100 per acre.
Typically, the benefit offers $70 per acre, less a deductible. Last year, an AgriRecovery payment of $30 per acre was also available.
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“This year, what the difference is we’re giving producers the option to buy up the additional $15 or $30 extra coverage, which really in a way replaces the excess moisture payment that producers got last year,” said Bjornerud.
The cost to obtain that extra coverage is 53 cents per acre for an additional $15, or $1.06 per acre for $30 more coverage.
Bjornerud said ad hoc programs are not bankable for producers or governments.
Governments aren’t forcing producers to buy crop insurance, he added.
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president David Marit said he understands why governments have put the onus on farmers to protect themselves, but some farmers were excluded from the program because they ran into financial difficulty and couldn’t pay their premiums.
“I would hope they would review the list and offer them the chance to get back in,” he said.
Marit said the government seems to be trying to enhance crop insurance enough that farmers will want to participate.
Last year, 75 percent of farmers in the province bought insurance on 23.1 million acres. Eight million acres went unseeded because of flooding.
Coverage for 2012 will be $174 per acre on average, or about $1 higher than last year. Premiums will also be higher, at an average $8.91 per acre compared to $8.72.
The province has budgeted $177 million for its share.
Changes have been made to the calculation formula for the unseeded acreage benefit. The insurance intensity formula has been removed and the seeding intensity formula changed so that summerfallow acres no longer affect claims.
Shawn Jaques, acting general manager at SCIC, said the corporation historically included summerfallow in the belief that idle land should be planted. Land that was left fallow affected claims by putting farmers over the payment threshold.
However, he said farmers leave land idle for various reasons.
“We felt that we shouldn’t be penalizing producers for leaving land idle and that’s why that was removed from the calculation,” he said.
The insurance intensity calculation originally limited farmers to a payment based on the percentage of acres they insured. For example, if a farmer was paid the unseeded benefit on 185 acres and insured 60 percent of his acres, he was paid on 60 percent of 185 acres.
Now, the full payment will be made.
“We found that over a 10-year period the majority of the producers insured all their acres with us,” Jaques said. “It was just a calculation that didn’t make a lot of sense anymore. It was adding complexity to the program.”
Other changes for this year include increases to the establishment benefit from $20 to $25 per acre for oats, canaryseed, fall rye, spring rye and triticale.
