2023-09-15 23:19:52
It is confirmed that the agricultural season is one of the worst in recent history. Damage notices to the Financière agricole du Québec have more than doubled compared to last year. Their number has also increased by 82% compared to the average of the last decade, and the compensation paid far exceeds previous averages.
The most recent data, published Friday, indicate that as of last Tuesday, agricultural producers had presented 6,119 notices of damage to the Financière to obtain compensation. Crops protected by crop insurance include grains, vegetables, corn, hay, berries, apples, potatoes, maple syrup and honey.
In total, the Financière has already paid $49.6 million to insured farmers, which far exceeds the compensation paid for the whole of 2022, a particularly lenient year. The amount also far exceeds the average of the last five years at the same date, which is almost $21 million.
“It is clearly a terrible year, and we are asking for special measures to deal with it,” declared the general director of the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA), Charles-Félix Ross, in an interview with The duty. No plant sector has been spared, he relates, and “several companies are heavily affected financially”, underlines this agroeconomist.
Heavy rain and drought
It must be said that in addition to difficult weather conditions, producers are subject to inflationary pressure, with the price of inputs such as fertilizer, fuel, seeds and animal feed increasing. “When you don’t have harvests, you don’t have money to repay the line of credit taken out in the spring” to start the season, explains Mr. Ross.
The Financière agricole du Québec already said in July that it was “very aware of the difficulties caused by heavy precipitation” in most Quebec regions. Excess rain affected the quantity of crops harvested and their quality in the majority of regions, this body wrote on Friday.
Fungal diseases continue to spread in crops, the majority of which are still in the harvest period, the Financière also notes in its report. Intensive cultivation regions received more rain than the average of the last 24 years, an excess which rose to more than two additional meters in Estrie, Centre-du-Québec and Gaspésie.
The intensity of the precipitation has at times laid certain crops on the ground, caused root vegetables to rot or complicated operations in the fields because of tractors which sank, producers reported in August.
Climatic hazards have obviously not affected all crops in the same way. In Abitibi-Témiscamingue, it was rather the lack of rain which reduced the yield of the first hay cut as well as the growth of pastures.
Facing the climate future
A special working group, from the Financière’s crop status monitoring committee, was set up in mid-August in response to the difficult weather conditions experienced by the horticultural sector. In particular, it must suggest ways of improving the Crop Insurance Program.
The UPA demands that we “rethink [le] sharing of risks between the State and producers,” recalls Charles-Félix Ross on the line. Crop insurance programs are 40% funded by producers and have deductibles. Farmers therefore assume a significant part of the bill and fear seeing their premiums increase in the coming years. The UPA suggests a review on the part of each insurance contributor.
“The programs are not adapted. […] When we fall into extreme losses, the government should assume more,” suggests the director general.
One of the most affected sectors this year is maple syrup production. Maple syrup production was “skinny” in 2023, reaching only 124 million pounds. In total, 1,315 notices of damage were submitted and $29.4 million paid in compensation for this category alone.
“Yes, it was a short season, but, by definition, [la production] fluctuates over the years,” concedes Joël Vaudeville, spokesperson for the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
The amounts paid by the Financière nevertheless satisfy the maple producers, but they wish to set up another mechanism: a form of “disaster insurance” which would take into account in particular the evaluation of the value of a maple tree which dies and which, therefore, , stops producing the desired liquid.
A maple tree takes 50 years to reach the maturity necessary to produce a quantity of water useful for the production of syrup. “Natural disasters and extreme weather phenomena are becoming more and more intense and recurrent because of climate change,” explains Mr. Vaudeville. It is therefore important to find a way to compensate for a lost maple tree, “lying down”, for example, following violent winds, or damaged by ice like last spring.
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