WHEREAS Southeast Saskatchewan has experienced excessive flooding in the past several years and through Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp. (SCIC), farmers were able to claim flood acres; and                       

WHEREAS there has been multiple flood years and farmers have been unable to seed and have claimed the flooded acres as allowed on crop insurance; and

WHEREAS  it has been suggested that SCIC will disallow further claims on these acres regardless of the fact until recent wet years these wet acres were fully seeded; and

WHEREAS the extreme wet conditions are far beyond what this area has even seen, we feel this is an appropriate action;

BE IT RESOLVED that SARM lobby the Provincial Government to continue to provide insurance coverage on farm land that has a long history of being seeded.

Response from the Honorable Lyle Stewart, Minister of Agriculture

The Unseeded Acreage (USA) feature ofthe Crop Insurance Program provides coverage for acres unseeded as of June 20 due to excessive spring moisture.  The intent  of the feature is to pay USA claims on normally cultivated acres, not on acres normally  wet each spring.  This means in order to qualify for USA indemnities,acres must have been in a seedable condition either in the spring, when seeding is intended, or the previous fall.

The longer term effects of flooding that occurs over a multi-year  period are not within the mandate of existing Business Risk Management programs under the Growing Forward 2 agreement.  The Saskatchewan Watershed Authority (SWA) may be able to provide some assistance in helping to deal with these longer-term issues.