For the first time since becoming Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister, Mark Wartman was able to announce that crop insurance coverage is going up and premiums are going down.
That likely won’t make everyone happy because coverage is still below the costs of production and the premium rates will drop, on average, just 3.4 percent.
Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan president Ken McBride said the changes for 2007 are good signs, but the crop insurance program is still far from adequate.
Wartman announced that dollar coverage will rise from a provincial average of $64 last year to $86.
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He reintroduced the variable price option and announced new coverage for identity preserved canola and wild rice and an expansion of the crop averaging pilot program.
Farmers who find it too wet to seed by June 20 will see the five percent deductible applied to fewer acres under the unseeded acreage feature. It used to be based upon the whole farm but will now apply only to quarter sections where there are wet acres.
Also, farmers whose crops don’t grow due to gopher damage are now eligible for an establishment benefit.
Wartman said he wanted to enhance the multiperil program so producers continue to participate in crop insurance.
The Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. and the Farm Support Review Committee looked at reintroducing two options – the variable price and spot loss hail.
Many producers and the Saskatchewan Party have called for the return of spot loss hail coverage.
“We learned early on that (spot loss hail) could not return with the same design nor with the same costs to producers that existed in 2001,” Wartman said.
It would cost more because the federal government would contribute only 20 percent of the premium cost. Ottawa will pay 36 percent of the variable price option premium.
Saskatchewan Party MLA Glen Hart said spot loss hail is available in other provinces. Allowing private companies to be the only providers of hail coverage adds to farmers’ costs, he said.
Under the variable price option, a customer’s insured price changes with market prices. Final prices are set in July, based on Agriculture Canada’s forecast.
The identity preserved canola coverage provides a separate plan for high-value canola based on its oil profile. Coverage is based on the contracted price.
About 100 wild rice growers on 55,000 permitted acres will be able to sign up for insurance. Coverage is based on average production in the region where the rice is harvested.
The crop averaging program, introduced two years ago, is now available province-wide. Eligible crops can be lumped together, reducing the insurance risk and allowing the corporation to provide coverage above 80 percent of a customer’s average yield to a maximum of 90 percent.
There are about 28,000 insurance contracts, said SCIC general manager Stan Benjamin. Between 68 and 70 percent of the seeded acres are insured each year.
“It’s been at that level for quite a few years, regardless of where premium rates seem to go.
