The Rural Voice, 1986-10, Page 15to insure only about 60 per cent
of the crop's value.
In 1985, 18,000 Ontario
farmers insured at least one crop.
The plan's premium payments
were $41.8 million and because
1985 was an excellent crop year,
there was a payout of only $10.8
million, with lima beans, black
tobacco, and onions the major
losses, says William Regan, acting
manager of the Crop Insurance
Commission of Ontario.
The picture is far less rosy this
year. Mark Mitchell of R.R. 1,
Moorefield, who cash crops 1,500
acres, including 600 acres with his
father, is one Wellington County
farmer who saw a mini -tornado
and hailstorm flatten many of his
fields. Mitchell, who had been
anticipating yields higher than
average, now fears that the July
crop damage may cost him his
farming operation.
Ironically, Mitchell has insured
his corn crops since 1975, mainly
as a safeguard against frost
damage, filing a claim under the
program only once. The July
storm ripped through 100 acres of
Mitchell's corn, 220 acres of
wheat, and a field of soybeans.
The wheat was uninsured because
it was an intensively managed
crop, and Mitchell says that this
is one area where the crop in-
surance plan falls down.
"I'm looking at $250 an acre
input costs on intensive -managed
wheat and all you can insure
spring grain for is something like
$60 or $70 an acre," he says. But
what disturbs Mitchell even more
is that even on his insured crops
he may not collect.
Part of the problem is that a
farmer can collect on a maximum
of 80 per cent of his average farm
yield only. Mitchell's farms are
spread over a 10 -mile radius, and
only one field of corn suffered
extensive damage from the mini -
tornado. "If the rest of my corn
makes up 80 per cent of my yield,
1 don't get a cent. I've completely
lost that .100 acres... Now that's
what I hate about it." Also, if
Mitchell is still farming next year
and uses the insurance plan, his
loss this year will take away from
his guaranteed yield average.
Mitchell uses this analogy: "...
you have four fenders on your
car. Somebody runs into you and
you get one fender wiped out. If
it was set up by crop insurance,
they'd say, well, you've still got
three fenders, we're not going to
pay you. Plus, when it comes to
next year, you've reduced your
coverage by a fender so you're
only guaranteeing two fenders. So
if you had another fender hit the
next year, they'd say, well, you
still have two fenders. And you
still wouldn't get paid."
Mitchell is also concerned that
government officials may
overlook the seriousness of the
Wellington County crop losses
because there wasn't more
damage to persons or property.
He recalls telling a television
reporter covering the tornado
story: "I can insure my buildings
and they are insured for full
value. If my house blows down,
no big deal, I can replace that
house. (But) I've lost my business
here and I cannot get insurance
for those crops to cover what I
have in it — I just can't."
Bill Benson, a neighbour of
Mitchell's, also had crops
destroyed by the mini -tornado,
REVIEWING THE ISSUES
If Ontario's crop insurance
program were to be revised
tor the 1987 crop year, changes
would have to be announced by
early November, says Roger
George. Otherwise, information
brochures could not be made
available by signup time.
George, who farms in the
North Bay area, is one of six
members of a review committee
that has been working for several
months toward recommending
changes that would make the in-
surance program more effective.
Although the review commit-
tee, appointed by Minister of
Agriculture Jack Riddell after the
OFA issued a critical brief on the
crop insurance program last
February, has already finalized its
recommendations, George was
unable to reveal them. An agree-
ment between the OFA, the in-
surance commission, and the
agriculture minister was that the
recommendations would remain
confidential until Riddell had
time to study them.
George will say, however, that
"the critical thing from our point
of view is that we feel we have to
make crop insurance something
that everybody is going to want
to buy. And they're only going to
want to buy it if it contains the
things that they deem to be
necessary. Two of those things
are coverage for hail and high
winds and, also, the spot -loss
coverage." If a Gallup poll were
taken of the Ontario farmers who
don't buy crop insurance,
George adds, "they would likely
say they'd only buy it if it
becomes meaningful ... and until
that kind of coverage is available,
farmers just aren't going to buy
crop insurance in the numbers
needed to waylay any of the pro-
blems when we have a disaster
like those we had this year a cou-
ple of times."
As well as George, who
represents the Ontario Federation
of Agriculture on the review com-
mittee, members are: William
Regan, acting general manager of
the Crop Insurance Commission
of Ontario; Greg Brown, a crop
specialist with the commission;
Gaetan Beaudry, a dairy farmer
from the Nipissing district and a
crop insurance commissioner;
George Piker, representing the
federal government; and Lynn
Girty, a Kent County farmer,
also representing the OFA.
Ontario isn't alone in the move
to reform crop insurance.
According to George, there's a
move across the Canadian pro-
vinces to spruce up crop in-
surance programs as a means of
"taking some of the sting out of
the cash crop situation."
George, a hog farmer who is
sharecropping barley, has used
the crop insurance program in the
past, but like the majority of cash
croppers, isn't enrolled now. He's
optimistic, however, that
Riddell's appointment of the
review committee and his indica-
tion that he will re -open discus-
sions on the Niagara peach losses
are signs that the crop insurance
program will be revamped.
"I think the climate for change
is out there from a political point
of view. I think that the commis-
sion can certainly win by making
some changes. Certainly the
politicians can win, and our
organization (OFA) can win. But
I think the biggest winners of all
can be the Ontario farmers who
are finally going to have, we hope
they're going to have, a more
meaningful crop insurance pro-
gram."O
OCTOBER 1986 13