Quebec’s farmers grappling with the devastating effects of increasingly erratic weather patterns on their crops.
As extreme weather events become more frequent, they’re calling for insurance coverage that accounts for this “new normal.”
Among the farmers dealing with the aftermath of relentless bad weather are Wayne and Karen Robinson, who run a farm near Saint-Eustache in the Laurentians, roughly 50 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Speaking with CBC News, the Robinsons recounted how the weather has impacted their income due to delayed harvests, crop losses, and ruined seeds.
While they have insurance coverage with the Financière agricole du Québec (FADQ), the province’s sole insurance provider for farmers, the couple said this won’t be enough to recoup their losses.
The situation is similarly dire for berry farmers, with cold snaps, droughts, and heavy rainfall causing a decline in both the quantity and quality of their fruit harvest.
“It's really hard for the fruits and strawberries and especially raspberries,” said Stéphanie Forcier, director at the Association des producteurs de fraises et de framboises du Québec, the association for strawberry and raspberry farmers in the province. “They are really fragile fruits.”
Forcier told CBC News that many berry farmers have already suffered significant financial losses. Now, they’re concerned over the spread of diseases among crops, which would compound their losses.
Amid this crisis, only half of the berry farmers are reportedly insured with the FADQ.
"We know that this weather is going to be our ‘new normal,’ so we need to be more prepared,” Forcier said. “We need to have better insurance programs for the farmers.”
A FADQ statement obtained by CBC News stated that it is sensitive to the challenges faced by farmers and is closely monitoring the situation across Quebec.
The Crown corporation mentioned plans to overhaul its crop insurance program in the coming years as part of a broader digital transformation.
It also emphasized that federal programs AgriStability and Agrinvest, along with Agri-Québec, are available to provide additional coverage when production margins fluctuate.
Quebec’s farmers are not alone in their struggles with extreme weather.
Last week, a Saskatchewan farm group called on both the federal and provincial governments to provide additional assistance for livestock producers grappling with severe drought conditions.
“Since early June, the drought has continued to expand in size and severity, especially in areas that have experienced multiple years of well-below-average precipitation, which is triggering drought-related pest infestations,” said Garner Deobald, president of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association.
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