DELTA, B.C. – Mike Guichon’s weathered pick-up drones past the mucky potato fields in British Columbia’s Fraser River delta with the same washed-out spirit that trickles through the spud grower’s swampy tone.
“The guy that farms these fields you’re looking at isn’t going to make it,” said Guichon, 58, pointing out the window of the cab.
“Having a year like this destroys your spirits. Farmers around here are pretty gloomy.”
Nearly half of the pro-vince’s seed and commercial potato crop is still under water or stuck in the mud.
Read Also
Key actions identified to address canola tariffs
Federal and Saskatchewan governments discuss next steps with industry on Chinese tariffs
Guichon lost 100 acres and has no crop insurance. The third generation Fraser Valley farmer said he’s never lost more than 10 acres to flooding before.
Money will be tight, but he and wife Susan still plan to make their annual get-away to Hawaii.
The trip won’t be the same,
he said.
“This year we’re going to be crunching numbers over there and trying to decide what to do next.”
Guichon couldn’t plant until the middle of July last year because of rain, and most of his potatoes will never be harvested.
He first tried to take them off Sept. 2, and then the 25th and again on the 30th but the equipment kept getting bogged down in the muck.
“I kept thinking we’ve got to be able to get in there but it just didn’t happen,” said Susan.
“It is pretty depressing in this area these days.”
Mike predicts diversified business interests will keep the Guichon operation afloat through this year’s $250,000 crop loss.
Their fortunes are better than most farmers’, said Judy Galey, with B.C.’s potato industry development committee.
“So many are devastated.”
Disease and heavy rains swept away 50 percent of this year’s crop, or 55,000 tonnes. That’s a $20 million hit to producers’ bottom line.
Some may go under
Galey said if the provincial government doesn’t serve up more than last month’s aid package for farmers, agriculture in B.C. could be doomed.
“It is critical B.C. farmers get disaster-level support at this time if the industry is not going to collapse,” she said.
A financial injection of half of this year’s losses, about $10 million, would keep growers afloat, she said.
But in their fight, farmers are up against tight provincial budgets and a marginal understanding by the public about the importance of agriculture, she said.
“If one of our main areas of import, say California, were severely impacted by El Nino or an earthquake it would have a significant impact on people’s ability to buy quality food at reasonable prices if agriculture in B.C. does not remain intact.”
Galey said the aid program, which involves loan guarantees by the province and more money for crop insurance, won’t provide a lot of money for planting for next year.
“For farmers in serious debt already it’s not terribly attractive.”
Denis Kirkham, who works with B.C.’s seed potato program officer for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, agreed the compensation package isn’t the answer washed-out farmers were looking for.
Some seed potato crops in the province yielded no more than four or five tonnes an acre, compared to 15 or 20 in an average year, Kirkham said.
There are still 220 acres of unharvested seed potatoes in Pemberton and the Fraser Valley. What did come off suffered up to 40 percent reduction in yields, he said.
Crop insurance came too late for growers, with too little explanation and a basic coverage option that wouldn’t have applied to this year’s situation.
Farmers are saying the compensation package offered isn’t adequate either, he said.
“It offers 70 percent of average farm income over three years but last year wasn’t a good one for many growers so you’re looking at really less than 50 percent,” Kirkham said.
