Saskatchewan farmers who have ideas about how to improve crop insurance will be able to present them this spring.
The program review, which the Saskatchewan Party government promised during last fall’s election campaign, was officially launched last week. It will include producer surveys, 10 public meetings in May and June and a website and toll-free number through which producers and industry can offer suggestions.
The review will be organized by Meyers Norris Penny and cost about $250,000.
Jonathan Small, farm management consultant with MNP, said the timing couldn’t have been worse in terms of encouraging farmer participation during spring seeding.
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However, he added, the consultation has to be done now to ensure that the final report is submitted to agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud by the Sept. 30 deadline.
“We’re really urging producers to make the time,” Small said.
Bjornerud said he didn’t want to prejudice the process by offering his suggestions for how the program should change. Some of the concerns about premiums being too high for the coverage they provided were addressed this year through higher coverage levels.
Participation in crop insurance has held steady at about 28,000 contracts.
Bjornerud said the variable price option was a popular selection. It allows producers to use a July price that more accurately reflects market conditions closer to harvest.
For example, the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. base price for No. 2 hard red spring wheat at 12 percent protein is $5.31 per bushel, based on price forecasts from Agriculture Canada. No. 1 canola is set at $9.19 per bu.
However, the Canadian Wheat Board’s March Pool Return Outlook projects No. 2 CWRS 11.5 percent protein at $10.07 a bu. at port, and current canola cash prices are about $13. Producers had to select the variable price option by March 31.
Bjornerud said farmers are looking at all possible ways to earn better prices to cover skyrocketing input prices, and the variable price option is one of them.
“Farmers are going to be hedging,” he said. “Maybe grain will be another $3 or $4 higher.”
As the review proceeds, Bjornerud expects to hear ways farmers think the insurance program could work better. He also wants to hear from producers who don’t buy crop insurance and what it would take to get them into the program.
“Our chief anxiety is how we reach out to those who don’t participate and how we find out who those are,” Small said.
Crop insurance clients will receive surveys in the mail. The website survey should be posted by mid-May, around the same time the public meetings begin.
Small said Myers Norris Penny wants as many responses as possible to make its final report more accurate.
“Obviously, if it was numbered in the hundreds that’s going to limit the value at least of the benchmark that we create out of this,” he said.
After the final report is issued, the corporation will calculate which changes can be made immediately and which will take longer.
“Some changes they may ask for we just may not be able to afford right away,” he said.
For more information, phone 866-622-CROP (2767) or visit www.skcropinsurancereview.ca.
