Saskatchewan farmers are lauding changes to the crop insurance program for this year, saying they address many long-held concerns.
The Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. (SCIC) acted on 12 of 16 recommendations made after last year’s program review.
“They were changes that were really needed and I was happy to see them,” said Greg Marshall, president of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
“We congratulate the government.”
Among the enhancements announced by agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud Feb. 19 were 100 percent wildlife damage compensation, yield trending for four crops, a yield cushioning pilot project and an in-season pricing option.
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“The whole insurance program now looks more at the cost of production,” said David Marit, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
That’s something farmers have long wanted.
Participation dropped over the years as farmers thought they weren’t getting enough coverage.
Bjornerud said participation in 2008 was about 75 percent of possible acres.
SCIC general manager Cam Swan said stronger prices last year meant producers had more money in the ground and were looking to safeguard it.
Although prices are lower this year, the program will offer higher coverage.
“Our dollar coverage in ’09 will be about $134,” Swan said. That compares to about $132 last year.
As well, premiums will decrease, on average, by a few cents an acre.
One recommendation farmers won’t see implemented is the return of spot-loss hail.
Bjornerud said the federal government wasn’t interested in renegotiating the crop insurance agreement to include such coverage.
It would cost the provincial government $70 million in 2009 to implement it on its own and the minister said none of the other changes would have been possible.
“It was just so expensive,” he said.
NDP agriculture critic Pat Atkinson said Bjornerud often called for spot-loss hail reinstatement during his time as critic. She called the decision not to include it this year “hypocrisy.”
The changes announced last week would require $20 million from the provincial treasury.
“This is over and above the additional $42 million the government contributed to crop insurance in 2008,” Bjornerud said. “The 2009 crop insurance program budget is $155 million.”
Farmers can expect their contract information in the mail the first week in March.
Other changes announced last week:
- Establishment benefits are going up for most crops after analysis of reseeding costs for individual crops. For example, canola payments will go up to $45 from $25 and large kabuli chickpeas payments will rise to $70 per acre from $30.
- The producer share of premiums under the Enhanced Irrigation Pilot Program is going down. The share was 66.7 percent but will now be 40 percent; the province will pay the difference.
- Price factors have been updated from 1.2 times to 1.3 times the commercial price for barley, oats and field peas produced by pedigreed seed growers.
- The list of organic crops eligible under the contract price option has been expanded to include hard red, hard white and Canada prairie spring wheat, durum, winter wheat, Canada Western extra strong wheat, triticale, and fall and spring rye.
- Producers with discounts won’t lose them unless they have two years with maximum credit loss, rather than just one year.
Crop insurance has consulted a reinsurance broker to examine the options for sharing risk and losses with private companies in order to stabilize premium rates.
The corporation has also pledged to do a better job of explaining the program details to its customers.
One older program farmers won’t see in their 2009 packages is the weather-based annual crop program, which used weather stations and allowed producers to insure against lack of rainfall or early frost.
The review last year called for an increase in weather stations, but Swan said it wasn’t practical to put a station on every quarter.
There were many complaints about the program and it has been cancelled, although the forage component remains in place.
SCIC carried about $3.5 billion in liability last year. Swan said the crop insurance fund, hit hard earlier this decade, now carries a surplus of about $200 million.
