MOOSOMIN, Sask. – Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. officials kicked off a series of meetings to explain changes to the 1994 program here last week.
The corporation has introduced three options it calls enhancements: spot loss hail, multiple crop averaging and a diversification option.
But farmers still aren’t sure if the options will help.
The spot loss hail option will be based on township rates, rather than risk area rates, senior executive manager Henry Schappert told about 100 people. Any indemnities will be deducted from subsequent yield loss payments.
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The maximum coverage level when spot loss hail protection is selected is 70 percent. But as one person in the crowd pointed out, producers can receive 80 percent coverage for yield loss due to hail without choosing the option.
Schappert said the option pays on a spot basis “even if the rest of the field is 50 bushels to the acre.”
Last year the average coverage was 75 percent, he said, so half of the farmers in the program only took 70 percent. Schappert also said hail coverage through the corporation is half the price of the line companies.
Albert Maki, who farms near Rocanville, said he won’t be choosing that option: “You sacrifice ordinary coverage by 10 percent,” he said. “It’s not a good option.”
Another farmer from a high-risk hail area near Rocanville said he thought premiums will still be too high. Both agreed the program is more complicated than last year.
The multiple crop averaging program will mean premium reductions. Schappert said insuring a combination of canola and wheat could mean a 5.9 percent discount. Insuring as many as four crops could see reductions of almost 10 percent. However, the hail option is not available, and one good crop can offset yield losses in all the others.
Many had questions about the diversification option, which provides coverage for crops like coriander that are not already insurable.
The coriander itself does not become insured, but coverage of another crop, such as wheat, is extended to cover the acres sown to coriander. Coverage and indemnity are based on the insured acres of the wheat, and a yield loss in the coriander only would not result in a payment. A maximum of 20 percent of total acres insured can be included under the diversification option.
Schappert told farmers that premiums for revenue insurance should be slightly lower than last year due to lower guarantees.
