The Canadian province of Saskatchewan is the largest producer of canola and wheat in the world, but it is currently seeing a massive number of crop insurance claims after its farms have experienced widespread flooding.

According to the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp chief executive officer, Shawn Jaques, “It’s a very large area that’s impacted, so we expect to get a number of claims”. The CEO of that government owned company based within the province went on to say that “There will be a large number of producers that had their crops seeded, and it’ll be flooded out.”

Jaques explained that it remains too early to be able to determine exactly how large and costly the damage to farms actually is, as farmers are only just now beginning to make their flooding claims. Parts of Saskatchewan and into the neighboring province of Manitoba are experiencing tremendous amounts of flooding after up to 8 inches of rain fell last weekend, alone.

There have already been 54 Saskatchewan municipalities that have declared a state of emergency, according to the deputy commissioner of emergency management and fire safety of Saskatchewan, Colin King.

Some estimates – such as those from Martell Crop Projections from Wisconsin – are predicting that there will be a 15 percent drop in wheat sowing in Saskatchewan as a result of the excessively wet weather conditions of late. LeftField Commodity Research has estimated that about 4 million acres of land throughout the Canadian prairies may now be too wet for farmers to be able to use them to plant.

In Manitoba, things are also looking as though crop insurance payouts will be notable, although the size of the damage in that province is still undergoing assessment at the time of the writing of this article. It will depend on whether or not the water recedes quickly, allowing some fields to be recovered, or whether the fields will be entirely washed out.

Source - http://www.liveinsurancenews.com/