Ontario is proposing amendments to the Crop Insurance Act that would, if passed, allow more types of agricultural products to be covered by production insurance.
Steve Smith, the president and CEO of Farm Mutual Reinsurance Plan (FMRP) describes the proposed amendments as more of a housekeeping initiative to clean up the language.
“From my perspective, it is a cleaning up and broadening of the language,” he told
Insurance Business. “It is expanding the definition of standing crop to include produce. The amendments are intended to bring a lot of clarity to the Act.”
Production insurance is part of a suite of business risk management programs designed to help farmers manage losses due to events like weather, pests and disease. The costs of these programs are predictable, stable and shared by producers and the provincial and federal governments.
The major agricultural insurance company that would be affected, says Smith, would be Agricorp and its 400 employees.
“This proposed legislation would, if passed, help meet the needs of our farmers and bring Ontario in line with the rest of Canada,” says Jeff Leal, the minister of agriculture, food and rural affairs for Ontario. “Giving more producers the opportunity to access production insurance will help them better manage risk and encourage greater innovation, profitability and job creation in the agri-food sector.”
Currently, production insurance is available for almost 90 commercially grown crops, including grains, oilseeds and certain fruits and vegetables. However, Ontario is the only province in Canada without the authority to expand production insurance beyond crops to the broader agricultural sector. (continued.)
#pb#
If passed, the proposed Agriculture Insurance Act would give Ontario the authority to expand insurance to support the agri-food industry in the event of unexpected loss of production for agriculture products.
Quick Facts:
- In 2013, there were more than 14,000 producers insured under Ontario’s Production Insurance program, representing more than 2.02 million hectares (five million acres) in crop land.
- By allowing more types of products to be covered by production insurance, Ontario is fulfilling a commitment made to farmers under the ‘Growing Forward 2’ agreement in 2013.
