The Rural Voice, 1986-10, Page 17government is paying a high
percentage of the cost. You add
$6 or $7 an acre times 500 acres,
you still have a fairly substantial
premium to pay and I think most
farmers, along with most people,
always think that nothing will
ever happen to them, it's always
the other party." But few people
hesitate to buy house insurance,
he adds, although "the chances
of your house burning down are
a lot slimmer than the chances of
losing a crop in the field."
William Regan, acting general
manager of the Crop Insurance
Commission of Ontario since last
spring, when Morris Huff, the
former chairman, was transferred
to another branch of the
ministry, also recognizes that
many growers have doubts about
the plan. He's very familiar with
complaints that the program can
cover only up to 80 per cent of a
crop and he's sympathetic to fruit
growers' charges that premiums
cost too much for the coverage
provided. But consider how in-
surance rates have increased in
other sectors like the auto in-
surance field, he points out.
"So it's all right to talk about
getting a lot of coverage at the
one end, but in the insurance
game, you have to get the dollars
in the front door to pay out the
back door." He adds that while
some private insurance firms still
offer hail insurance to tobacco
farmers, there aren't any firms
willing to insure crops against all
risks as the government plan
does.
Echoing one of Roy's state-
ments, Regan notes that increas-
ingly bankers are seeing crop in-
surance as a plus. "If a farmer
can go into a banker in the spring
and say, look, I'm guaranteed at
least up to 80 per cent of my
yield, and this is the premium
that I have to pay, then that puts
a pretty good floor under his
operation for the banker to lend
him money."
While cash croppers might beat
the odds, avoiding the myriad of
natural disasters from droughts to
pests to disease, Regan says that
Ontario's fruit growers aren't
likely to be as lucky. "If you
grow fruit anywhere in Ontario
you're going to get something
down the line somewhere,
because it's very risky."
In fact, only 8 per cent of On-
tario's peach growers bought crop
insurance last year (peach farmers
have received much of the
publicity about recent crop
losses). Only 12 per cent of
strawberry growers subscribed to
the program, and about half of
Ontario's apple acreage remains
uninsured.
Ken Wilson, a horticultural
crops advisor working out of the
Clarksburg OMAF office, is well
aware that Georgian Bay apple
growers have generally resisted in-
suring their harvest. "We have
fewer natural disasters than some
other areas do and, as such, we
just don't seem to get our money
out of it. Now the apple growers
are looking for a program that
exclusively covers hail."
"When you look over the crop
insurance scheme that's set up in
Ontario today, there are many
things that you insure for, most
of which you have some kind of
control over, such as selection of
orchard site, your selection of
variety, your ability as a manager
... We feel that's the grower's
gamble and he should be looking
after that on his own. But the on-
ly thing that falls from the sky,
that you have no control over,
it's heaven sent, is hail. The
growers up here are keenly in-
terested in nothing but hail in-
surance."
Of the approximately 175 or-
chards in the Clarksburg area,
Wilson estimates that about 20
growers carry crop insurance,
"mostly because it's required by
the lending institutions." Apple
growers do have representation
on the Crop Insurance Commis-
sion of Ontario, however, and
Wilson says pressure is being ap-
plied to introduce an insurance
program strictly for hail damage.
Last summer's hailstorms and
mini -tornados, which devastated
Niagara peach orchards, Holland
Marsh garden plots, and Well-
ington County cash crops, have
put long-time frustrations with
the crop insurance program
before the public eye. As Mayor
Jim Marino of Niagara -on -the -
Lake told reporters, "The bottom
line is if it's such a darned good
program, why aren't farmers tak-
ing advantage of it?"
The answer might be that even
when farmers like Mark Mitchell
do insure their crops, they're still
left unprotected against spot
damage. Even if the program
could be reformed for the 1987
crop year, it might be academic
to growers who watched their
livelihood wiped out in the sum-
mer of '86.❑
141111) MONO
PERM
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PUREBRED
LANDRACE & YORKSHIRE
Dog Hegry & Family
R.R. 1 Bluevale, NOG 1G0
Phone 519-335-3240
hisex
DAY OLD CHICKS
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from
FISHER POULTRY
FARM INC.
AYTON,ONT. NOG1C0
519.665.7711
"Our experience
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86 YEARS EXPERIENCE
Member of Canadian
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Water Well Associations
• Farm
• Industrial
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Licensed
by the Ministry
of the Environment
DAVIDSON
WELL DRILLING LTD.
WINGHAM
Serving Ontario Since 1900
519-357-1960 WINGHAM
519-886-2761 WATERLOO
OCTOBER 1986 15