The Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation (MASC), a crown corporation, provides crop insurance for farmers in the province at an affordable rate. In order to qualify for the program, producers must have at least three acres of the same crop. This has been challenging for some smaller-scale farms in the province who have struggled during a year with a very late spring, a dry summer and a very wet fall. These farmers are hoping that the minimum acreage rule could be adjusted or that MASC could introduce alternative crop insurance options for very small-scale farmers.
“We normally do a seasonal vegetable box program,” says Bruce Berry of Winnipeg’s Almost
“We don’t see any bad intent,” says Bruce Berry of Almost Urban Vegetables on the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation’s lack of crop insurance options for very small farmers. “We would like to engage with them and have a dialog with them. Maybe there’s something that can be done.”
Urban Vegetables. “In October, we were unable to do that because of the effects of the water and so on. And it resulted in quite a reduction in what we could bring to the farmer’s market in October. It’s certainly thousands and thousands of dollars of impact, which for us is significant given the margins in this business.”
Berry says that normally at this time of the year, they are preparing beds for next year, but the weather has put them way behind and spring planting could end up significantly delayed.
Justin Girard of Elie, Manitoba’s Hearts and Roots farm says that his farm suffered a similar impact. In addition to being subject to the same weather patterns as Berry, one particularly fierce storm damaged the farm’s four 100-foot hoop houses.
Extreme weather left Hearts and Roots’ hoop houses mangled and in need of repair.
“We lost about 75 per cent of our annual summer crops,” says Girard. “We’re probably looking at
“We can make the best of a bad situation, but nevertheless, we would still appreciate that investment in our sector,” says Justin Girard of Hearts and Roots (seen here with wife Britt Embry and dog Merle).
a 60 per cent gross income loss for the season. We had to let go of our two full time staff, which made it a lot more difficult to do our jobs afterwards.”
Small-scale operators are in a very difficult position regarding insurance. They are unable to qualify for insurance through MASC, and because MASC is offering a federally subsidized version of crop insurance, there is no incentive for any private insurance companies to offer an alternative.
“It’s unfortunate that insurance isn’t an option,” says Girard. “I’ve heard about programs in the states and also in Quebec where you can insure your market garden for total crop loss if you have two acres or more. It’s frustrating. I don’t think small farms are taken very seriously even though we can grow a pretty high profit per acre because of our intensive practices.”
Doug Wilcox, manager for product knowledge and support for MASC, notes that they do insure small farms (those with between 50 and 60 acres make up roughly 10 per cent of their clients) just not very small farms. The program is designed to support commercial producers, with the theory that very small producers would be unlikely to make their living solely off their very small farm.
“I think that’s what the historic reasoning was, that when you’re so small, you’re not reliant or dependent on that production to the same extent the commercial producer is,” says Wilcox.
Wilcox also notes that while this issue has begun to receive some media attention, MASC has yet to receive any formal requests to insure very small farms.
“We’re open to meeting with them and getting their input and considering developing products,” says Wilcox.
Representatives for Direct Farm Manitoba, a cooperative which both Berry and Girard are members of, say that they are looking at sending a formal request, possibly in collaboration with other groups.
—Matt Jones