AFSC lowering crop insurance premiums this year

AFSC lowering crop insurance premiums this year

The provincial crop insurer says it is reducing premiums 
by an average of 
eight per cent

Reading Time: < 1 minute Agriculture Financial Services Corporation is lowering crop insurance premiums. “On average, 2018 premium rates for crops are eight per cent lower than they were in 2017,” AFSC said in a news release. “The decrease in premium rates is a reflection of the generally good growing conditions over the past few years, which resulted in positive […] Read more

Scott Moe discusses plans to lift the PST off insurance premiums in a Canadian Taxpayers Federation video. (CTF video screengrab via YouTube)

Saskatchewan pulls sales tax off farm insurance

Saskatchewan’s provincial government has reinstated a provincial sales tax (PST) exemption for agriculture, health and life insurance premiums. Premier Scott Moe on Monday announced the exemption will take effect retroactive to Aug. 1 last year, when the PST was first applied to insurance. The province said the exemption will include PST on premiums paid for […] Read more


(FarmersEdge.ca)

Farmers Edge to use data to edge into insurance sector

Farmers Edge has signed a four-year agreement with global reinsurance company PartnerRe to bring precision farming technology together with ag insurance. Under the agreement announced this week, the two companies plan to work together to develop new insurance products for the agricultural market. While Canadian farmers have access to government-run, subsidized crop insurance programs, as […] Read more



Crop Insurance: Hail claims dipped sharply but unharvested acres soared

Crop Insurance: Hail claims dipped sharply but unharvested acres soared

The number of unseeded acres rose eightfold but the provincial crop insurer paid out 
less than half the usual amount of hail claims

Reading Time: 2 minutes Dry conditions had one benefit this year — they helped contribute to a big drop in hail damage. “It was very dry in the south, with less activity in relation to hail. The central-south areas were more active this year,” said Daniel Graham, manager of business risk products with the Agricultural Financial Services Corporation (AFSC). […] Read more

More and more farmers have been opting out of AgriStability because the program has been paying out less when the harvest is poor — especially for low-cost producers.

New ag policy aims to sweeten the AgriStability pot

More farmers have been opting out of the farm-income support 
program after changes in 2013 reduced the potential payout

Reading Time: 4 minutes CAP is a rather fitting acronym for the recently announced Canadian Agricultural Partnership, the latest government ‘policy framework’ that governs its farm support programs. “That’s a very easy way for people to remember the two major changes that have come about here,” said Steve Funk, director of farm income programs at MNP. “They’ve capped the […] Read more


Unseeded acres create ripple effect in the number of insured acres this summer

Unseeded acres create ripple effect in the number of insured acres this summer

Insured barley and pea acres are down, but canola, lentil, and hemp acres went up

Reading Time: 3 minutes Two years of rough weather conditions haven’t been enough to drive producers to increase their crop insurance coverage. “I don’t think there’s a huge change in the overall level of insurance participation. The reasons people participate aren’t always dependent on the weather,” said Jesse Cole, research analyst at Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC). “There could […] Read more



CropChoice$ for 2017 now online

CropChoice$ for 2017 now online

Reading Time: < 1 minute This years’s edition of the CropChoice$ planning tool is now available. The tool uses the latest crop insurance data from AFSC and projected crop costs to evaluate a crop plan in its entirety, said provincial crops economist Rawlin Thangara. “Let’s say a producer has a crop plan for 10 fields that he wishes to evaluate. […] Read more

Crop insurer says it is ‘streamlining’ inspection process

AFSC is also asking producers to gather information to speed up the assessment of unharvested acres


Reading Time: < 1 minute Here’s what AFSC says it has done to “streamline inspection processes in order to expedite assessments”: The number of required field counts has been reduced when appraising wildlife damage and potential production on the unharvested acres, relying on the inspector’s judgment to do more counts when required. Allow visual appraisals on crops where, in the […] Read more