Unharvested acres

Mother Nature can be unpredictable. Farmers know that they’re at the mercy of favourable weather, no matter the season. If it’s seeding time they need moisture. If it’s harvest season they need all the sunny days they can get to haul in bumper crops.

While nature’s unpredictability is a major factor in producing crops, one thing is predictable: our government will always have our farmers’ back when dealing with testy and challenging farming seasons.

Growing up on a farm, I know farmers work hard to bring the best yield of crops every year, but sometimes their best efforts could be subjected to the vagaries of weather and markets. I heard the concerns brought forward by the crop commissions when I spoke with them recently and I commend them for reflecting the views of their members. I value farmers’ input on how we can best address this situation through the important work of Agriculture Financial Services Corporation.

I have asked AFSC to streamline its inspection process and its officials have done so because we both recognize that there’s a need to respond in a timely manner to inspections.

Boots are on the ground, with 120 folks in the full swing of on-farm inspection. Inspectors are actively working on wildlife and pre-harvest claims.

I also know that AFSC on farm inspection and branch staff will be proactively contacting clients to set up required inspections to ensure we are moving through the process in a timely manner.

I am pleased that AFSC has agreed to reduce the number of required field counts when appraising wildlife damage and potential production on the unharvested acres, and to rely on the inspector’s judgement to do more counts when required. I know that in situations where AFSC has determined a crop is unharvestable (e.g. severely lodged or not marketable) a zero yield will be assessed.

I’ve been assured by AFSC officials that their staff will process claims on a crop-by-crop basis if there are delays in assessing total production of the different insured unharvested crop types in order to provide cash flow to producers.

Dealing with the unharvested acres is a priority for AFSC and all available adjusting staff are being deployed to the affected areas to move through claims as quickly as possible.

These actions will help producers spend less time worrying about last year’s crop, and more time preparing for the growing season.

The success of our farmers and our rural communities is essential to Alberta’s success, and through existing programs and services our government is committed to helping farmers make their lives better.