Total Saskatchewan crop insurance premium costs will rise by about 53 percent this year.
Payouts of $1.1 billion in 2002 – the largest in the program’s history – account for about half of the increase, while program improvements account for the other half.
Provincial agriculture minister Clay Serby said individual increases will vary, depending on producers’ claim history, where they farm and the crops they grow.
Total premium costs are projected to rise from $235 million to $359 million. Producers will pay 37 percent of that, while the federal and provincial governments pick up the rest.
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The increases include a provision to repay the $500 million debt in the program’s reinsurance fund over 15 years as per the federal-provincial agreement.
“We have no choice but to proceed to retire it,” Serby said in an interview.
Premium costs will also be affected by higher market prices. The program will use January 2003 prices, which are about nine percent higher than those used last year.
The 2003 program has been fine tuned to better reflect how yields are calculated for individual farmers.
“We’ve gone through every producer contract and gone through area averages to make them more exact for each farmer,” Serby said. “There’s a premium cost in doing that.”
But it also should bring yields more in line. For example, in some areas stubble and summerfallow crops yield the same and the numbers should reflect that.
Average yields are expected to increase about five percent.
Other changes for this year include adding more weather stations to improve the forage rainfall program.
Producers will choose from among 119 weather stations, up from 81. They must select a station within 100 kilometres of the insured land location.
The program will also better reflect productivity as it offers coverage based on soil zones.
Two crop rainfall programs will run as pilots this year.
The top up of $10 per acre introduced last year will continue.
A second program, offering weather-based coverage at $70 per acre, is aimed at producers who don’t participate in the multi-peril program.
Other improvements have been made for crops like dry beans and for organic crops.
Serby said the program could not sustain a reintroduction of spot-loss hail coverage.
The deadline to enroll in the forage rainfall program is March 31. For all other programs, the deadline is April 30.
