Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation premiums will be going up, on average, by 8.5 per cent.
This announcement came Feb. 23 during a Melville press conference hosted by Lyle Stewart, the Minister of Agriculture and Shawn Jaques, president of the SCIC.
The 2017 crop insurance program will see coverage increase from $216 to $217 an acre. Premiums are also increasing to an average of $8.51. Last year, premiums were an average of $7.84.
“The premium increase is mainly due to the increase in insuring higher value crops,” said Stewart.
The 2016 season
Stewart said 1.3 million acres of crop went unharvested last year.
“Our estimate is the crop insurance program will pay over $660 million in claims for the 2016 growing season. This is a substantial amount of money that will help our growers as they prepare and move forward with the 2017 crop.”
Last year was a record-breaker, with 29 million acres of cropland insured.
It was not, however, record-breaking in terms of how much was paid out to producers.
“The record losses that Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation saw was in 2002 when there was a widespread drought across the province. That year, we paid out just over $1.2 billion in losses,” said Jaques.
Stewart noted that the program adapted to 2016 conditions, when crops were damaged by October’s poor weather.
“Traditionally, SCIC would wait until a producer finishes harvest before paying their claim, but this year, because of the prolonged harvest, crop insurance began paying claims before the farmers finished harvest,” said Stewart.
Program changes
Minor changes are being made to the 2017 program, including increased flexibility of the crop averaging program and increased establishment benefit value. For large green lentils, the benefit value will be $60 per acre, while other lentils are at $40 an acre and soybeans are at $100 an acre.
Otherwise, the program will continue as it has in previous years.
“There are not a lot of major changes to the program this year due to fiscal constraints, however as I said earlier, we have improved the crop insurance program in the past and feel it is a relevant and effective program for 2017,” said Stewart.
Reactions
The reaction from producers in the Melville conference room was largely positive.
“I guess [I’m] encouraged to see that the program is continued, not a lot of changes happening, so from an education perspective I think as a farmer, it’s the same, so that’s good news,” said Lane Stockbrugger, vice-chair of SaskCanola.
Harvey Malanowich, Division 4 director with Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, was also pleased.
“I’m going to stress here, the individual coverage is probably the best program crop insurance came up with because each farmer has their own management program. They can pick the best program that suits and works for them,” said Malanowich.
“In my opinion, it’s the best program we’ve had in years.”
