Agricultural producers are expected to access almost $1 billion in crop insurance claims and disaster deposits this season as Alberta faces its worst drought since 2009.
Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier said that while recent rainfalls have helped, dry weather conditions have damaged roughly 80 per cent of provincial crops and the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) estimates multi-peril crop insurance claims to run between $700- and $900 million this season.
Crop yields this year are estimated to be down between 25 and 30 per cent.
After touring farms in Westlock, Morinville, Thorhild and Smoky Lake this week, Carlier said crop conditions are "spotty" across the province with some crops doing well while "some of the crops barely reached past my ankle."
"It's no doubt we're in a drought situation, there's no doubt that there's challenges being faced by many of the producers in the province," he said.
"The harvest is going to be extremely low in a lot of those areas."
As a result, Carlier outlined a number of AFSC programs available to farmers as well as three "common sense" initiatives to help producers manage their livestock through the dry conditions. The province worked with the federal government to arrange tax deferrals for the sale of livestock and has halved rental fees on the provincial water pump program retroactive to April 1.
In addition, Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development is working with municipalities to open up more Crown lands for grazing leases to help increase producers' access to feedstock supplies.
"Those are all welcome things. The pasture situation is still dire in a lot of places so the opening up of some public land will help address that immediately," said Humphrey Banack, vice-president of the Alberta Federation of Agriculture.
Banack said many farmers' winter water supplies are based on surface water so the cut to the pump rate will help. He also praised the tax deferral as it's a "huge cost to us" when producers forced to sell turn around and buy the animals back next year.
A mass sell-off of provincial livestock isn't happening yet, said Carlier, noting exports are currently 8.5 per cent below last year and producers are seeing a positive 38 per cent increase in slaughter rates.
While over a dozen municipal districts have declared a state of agricultural disaster to push the province into creating a disaster relief program for the drought, Carlier said the AFSC programs are the "first line of defence" and the government will continue to reassess the situation throughout the season.
The AFSC says approximately 78 per cent of crops and 29 per cent of pasture acreage was insured in 2015, with $70 million in claims processed so far. Producers also have access to $541 million in deposits in their AgrilInvest accounts.
The claims are paid through over $2 billion in reserve funds, and will not affect the NDP government's upcoming budget.
Source - http://www.edmontonsun.com/
