SASKATCHEWAN PRODUCERS TO BENEFIT FROM AgriRECOVERY ANNOUNCEMENT

Yorkton - With large portions of the province inundated with moisture again this year, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud have announced an assistance program to help all producers affected by flooding.  Like last year, this year’s Excess Moisture Program (EMP) is jointly funded, federally and provincially, under the AgriRecovery initiative.

“This is the second straight year that producers in my constituency have been hurt by excess moisture,” said Garry Breitkreuz, Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville. “While I know many have utilized Crop Insurance, the announcement of a 2011 Excess Moisture Program will certainly help all our farmers restore damaged cropland.”

Thursday’s EMP announcement will see the rollout of a $30 per acre payment, less a five per cent deductible applied to the affected wet acres, to Saskatchewan farmers. The $30 per acre is for both Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) participants and non-participants, and is in addition to the $70 per acre that SCIC customers were eligible for with unseeded acres due to flooding.

The EMP will provide support to producers who had cropland 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.  Forages seeded in 2010 or 2011 that failed to establish due to excess moisture are also eligible.

The $30 per acre payment falls under the AgriRecovery Program and is in addition to existing federal-provincial Business Risk Management programs, such as Crop Insurance, AgriStability and AgriInvest, which are the first lines of defence to address income shortfalls.  Producers across Saskatchewan can contact their Crop Insurance office for more details on the EMP and either Crop Insurance (1-888-935-0000) or their Rural Municipality office for the AgriRecovery application forms.  Crop Insurance customers need not apply for the EMP unless an established crop was flooded between June 20 and July 31, 2011.  Crop Insurance customers will receive EMP payments automatically for acres reported as unseeded on their Seeded Acreage Reports.  The deadline to apply for the $30 per acre EMP payment is Sept. 30, 2011.

“There are an estimated eight million acres of unseeded or seeded and subsequently flooded out land in Saskatchewan, and I know many producers in Yorkton-Melville have been greatly affected,” said Breitkreuz.  “Thursday’s announcement reaffirms our governments’ commitment to our agriculture producers.  AgriRecovery was established to address agriculture disasters with immediate and direct support, and I believe this money will help our flooded out farmers prepare for, hopefully, a much better 2012.”

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