THE Federal Government’s recent funding announcement for multi-peril crop insurance, won’t cover all farmers taking out policies.

Federal Agricultural Minister Barnaby Joyce announced the $20 million program last month, which will “provide one-off rebates to help eligible farm businesses with the cost of independent and professional advice on an insurance policy”.

The Managing Farm Risk Program will provide up to $2500 in funding against the costs incurred by an eligible farm business in securing, or attempting to secure, agricultural insurance.

This includes payments to a professional service to undertake an assessment required by an insurance company, compiling historical farm financial performance and production data or an analysis of insurance options.

This means growers will generally only be able to get the rebate once for any of these activities, and it will not subsidise premiums.

The announcement appears to favour the three companies that charge for an upfront risk assessment or “farm survey”, which can cost about $4000 to $5500.

Latevo charges a one-off $5500 fee for a full risk assessment of a farming operation before offering multi-peril crop insurance, while SureSeason requires a one-off upfront evaluation on the farm’s performance for the past five years, which costs growers $4400.

Primacy PrimeGuard’s insurance may also require an extensive farm survey paid for by the grower, if growers miss certain cut-off dates.

It also means growers, who have already paid for these upfront assessments in previous seasons will not be able to claim back the costs.

CelsiusPro offers weather certificates against adverse events over a season or at a specific time.

CelsiusPro chief executive Jonathan Barratt said they charged $1500-$2500 for a weather analysis of a client’s farm if they request it, part of which he believed could be claimed back under the new program. Latevo chief executive Andrew Trotter, who has been lobbying for this type of rebate since 2013, said the government incentive would help push a new wave of growers into taking out multi-peril policies.

“Farmers are already buying single peril, (the Government) don’t need to support them — (the program) is only helping the upfront charges but not doing anything about the risk.”