Prairie farmers collect $155 million in crop hail insurance payouts
Farmers across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba received $155 million this year, spread over 16,000 claims of hail damage.
The Canadian Crop Hail Association said that farmers in Saskatchewan received nearly $103 million in crop hail insurance this year; Alberta producers claimed about $28 million and Manitobans claimed $14.8 million.
The Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation said that excess moisture has been a significant cause of loss this year. The Unseeded Acreage feature of the Crop Insurance Program provides coverage of $50 per eligible claim acre on crop land that was too wet to seed. To date, the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) has received 12,277 unseeded acreage claims, of which 98 per cent have been paid a total of $217.5 million.
The Establishment Benefit provides producers with compensation when seeded crops fail to establish, meaning the plant density is below the recommended level. There are 4,913 claims registered with 4,845 claims paid a total of $13.9 million.
If producers wish to put their crops to an alternative use other than harvest, a pre-harvest claim is registered. As of October 15, producers have registered 1,582 pre-harvest claims. There have also been 1,771 post-harvest claims registered for yield-loss on harvested crops.
SCIC insured 21.44 million acres seeded in the province in 2010. The total value of these insured crops is estimated to be $2.7 billion. Crop Insurance customers reported 6.8 million acres remained unseeded this year.
