Saskatchewan organic growers say crop and income insurance programs should be changed to better meet their needs.
While crop insurance recognizes organic grains, there is no separate category for organic forage.
Dayton Funk, second vice-president of the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, said certified organic hay sells at about a $30 per tonne premium over conventional hay.
Growers want the option to take out insurance that properly reflects that premium because forage represents about one-quarter of seeded organic acreage.
“We’re looking for organic forage pricing,” he said.
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Arlan Frick, analyst with Saskatchewan Crop Insurance, has met with SOD officials four or five times over the past couple of years and is well aware of their request to add forage to the organic program.
Before the agency can make such a change there are a number of things to consider, such as how well developed the organic forage market has become.
“There are no major changes coming for next year,” he said.
Organic growers also want crop insurance to review summerfallow coverage with respect to green manure crops. They also raised a number of issues related to farmers going through the three-year transition period, who are considered by crop insurance to be conventional farmers.
“You’re in no-man’s land for three years,” said Funk.
Frick said the agency will continue to have discussions with SOD and other organic groups as part of the agency’s annual review of all its programs.
But Funk said the problems don’t stop with crop insurance. Organic growers have issues with the Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization program as well.
While crop insurance refuses to recognize organic forage, CAIS uses the $30 per tonne premium when calculating inventory.
For Funk, who had a 1,000 tonne reserve of hay on his farm, that proved costly when seeking assistance.
“That took $30,000 out of our margin loss,” he said.
Funk said crop insurance and CAIS officials need to iron out the kinks in their programs so organic producers are not left to fend for themselves.
“There is a void there where a lot of producers can fall through the cracks,” he said.
