Alberta crop insurance payments for the 2002-2003 crop year were the largest in the province’s history, says the Agriculture Financial Services Corp. annual report.
Crop, forage and straight hail insurance payments totalled $796 million with an additional $111.6 million of Farm Income Disaster Program payments.
The $796 million in crop, forage and straight hail claims was a 57 percent increase over the number of claims the year earlier, said the report.
For 2002, crop insurance was purchased on 11.1 million acres, with 80 percent of these also insured for hail. Straight hail insurance was bought on 3.1 million acres and forage insurance on 9.7 million.
Under FIDP, 4,007 farmers were paid $111.6 million for the 2001 claim year.
AFSC also authorized 1,702 farm loans valued at $136.3 million, with $18.7 million representing loans made under the Alberta Disaster Assistance Loan Program.
