Crop producers affected by the floods will be able to access approximately $448 million in federal-provincial AgriRecovery funding that will help farmers and ranchers address challenges caused by excess moisture.
Under the AgriRecovery response, eligible crop producers will receive the equivalent of $30 per eligible acre for crop land that could not be seeded as of June 20, 2011, and crop land that was seeded but then flooded out on or before July 31, 2011.
The funds are in place for those affected in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The entire cost of the proposed payments to all eligible Alberta crop producers is $16.5 million, with $9.9 million borne by the federal government and $6.6 million by the province. The program will be administered by the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC).
There is also a pasture component that will address the inability to access normal pasture for an extended period of time, resulting in extraordinary costs to producers. Meanwhile, livestock producers who are coping with the effects of excess moisture this spring and summer can also apply for financial assistance to help cover additional costs, such as renting pasture and transporting feed or livestock. Specific program details will be provided by each province.
Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Ken Kowalski said producers in his constituency need to apply through the AFSC to ascertain their eligibility by calling 1-877-899-2372.
In addition to this assistance, existing federal-provincial Business Risk Management programs, specifically Crop Insurance, AgriStability and AgriInvest, will help farmers manage the impact of flooding as the first lines of defence to address income shortfalls, Kowalski said.
County Reeve Bill Lee, who raises cattle, said he is happy there is some sort of relief in place, but pointed out $30 an acre isn’t as much as producers were hoping to get.
“At least it’s something,” he said. “For a while there, I didn’t know if we were going to get anything. It definitely won’t recover the losses that producers have sustained as a result of all this, but it is something.”
The funds are a small silver lining in a very dark cloud that settled over producers in the area, and Lee said he would like to think the media coverage received by the County was the extra push needed to get this funding in action, “not just for our producers, but for everyone else in the province that was affected by excess moisture.”
Lee encourages all producers to look into this and call the AFSC.
Fellow cattle producer Leonard Schmidt agreed, but said the eligible funds don’t even begin to scratch the surface with how much it costs crop producers to grow their livelihoods. He said it all depends on what is being produced, but it costs hundreds of dollars per acre to grow different crops.
“I’m on the high end of not being satisfied,” Schmidt said. “I’m not a grain farmer, but I do grow feed. I certainly want to get a hold of Ken (Kowalski) and (Rob) Merrifield and let them know that.”
County CAO Mark Oberg said the announcement last week is at least a starting point, and the funds are in addition to crop insurance, income stabilization programs and other similar programs.
“This is a good thing for our community,” Oberg said.
“We had more than 8,000 acres of land under water at one point or another. For many producers, their livelihood for the year is wiped out.”
There are a variety of different crops that bring in a different amount of income.
AgriRecovery is available for certain magnitudes of disasters, and this payment will assist producers in addressing the financial hardship of dealing with back-to-back years of lost production and extraordinary costs incurred to maintain, manage and restore their affected lands to minimize the impact for the upcoming growing season, Kowalski added.
“Extreme weather and flooding is once again hurting our Prairie farmers,” said federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. “Governments have come together to develop a relief package that will help producers restore damaged cropland and transport feed or livestock so they can continue to produce the high quality grains and livestock the world has come to expect.”
“Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development is continuing to monitor conditions across the province, and I am very pleased that the government is in a position to offer this support,” Kowalski said.
“I have seen first-hand the devastation that the flooding has left on the farms in our area,” said Yellowhead MP Rob Merrifield. “Our own farm has been affected.”
