After unrelenting winter, Nova Scotia farmers face debilitating losses

The federation of agriculture is conducting an analysis of the weather-related damages.

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All eyes were turned to Nova Scotia this winter, as the province not only experienced record snowfall but actually managed to see one of its Marine Atlantic commuter ferries become stuck in ice off the coast of Cape Breton with 190 passengers on board.
 
 In fact, the ice buildup was so pronounced that it could be viewed from space with NASA satellites.
 
As this ice and snow begins to thaw, many farmers are starting to see the catastrophic damage that the extreme weather has brought to agricultural machinery and crops. 
 
Bob Parker, a greenhouse crop specialist in Pictou County, told The Canadian Press that his main facility essentially became a pile of debris that “basically looks like a bomb hit it.”
 
“I think the growers did everything they could to try to prevent the loss, but in many cases, the loses came anyway,” Parker told the news agency.  “We’ve been at it for 42 years here, and I’ve never seen the same type of effect.”
 
Parker fears that other Nova Scotian growers will not be able to yield any crops in the next production cycle.
 
These damages follow a trend of weather-related insurance spikes, with the Insurance Bureau of Canada reporting that catastrophe-related claims in 2014, many of which are weather-related, reached $3.2 billion, tripling the annual average over the five years prior.
 
Insurance companies don’t usually provide coverage for greenhouse structures, but some propitious growers may be able to benefit from policies that provide awards for “interruption to business.”
 
So far, The Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture has surveyed 62 farmers and estimates damages to farmland and equipment to be near $8.5 million, substantially higher than typical winters.
 
“And those are just the direct construction or infrastructure damages,” Chris van den Heuvel, president of the federation, told CP. “Those aren’t any of the costs around mitigating any of the snow and ice removal, or any of the long-term costs around business and income loss and so on.''
 
A maple syrup producer relayed his frustrations in having to shovel day after day after day, only to find kilometers of tubing to be buried regardless.
 
The federation is currently seeking out more farmers’ input, and will showcase findings to provincial officials with hopes that the government will offer assistance to Nova Scotia farmers.  
 

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