Recent History – 2000
March 15, 2000
DAWSON CREEK – Farmers will see some changes when they sit down to fill out their 1999 Whole Farm Insurance Program applications.
The federal and provincial governments, which jointly run the program, announced Tuesday that the applications are now available.
“Whole farm insurance has shown it can provide tremendous support to B.C. farmers,” said B.C. agriculture minister Corky Evans in a news release.
“Program adjustments for 1999 will further streamline the program and allow more farmers to take advantage of the program.”
Adjustments made to the 1999 WFIP include treating negative margins in the reference years as a zero. This change means that the reference margin will be treated the same as the claim year.
In addition, farmers have the option of using an Olympic average for their reference period.
In that case, the farmer’s reference period is calculated as a three-year average based on the preceding five-year period, excluding the highest and lowest years.
This allows farmers more flexibility in calculating the reference margin and will improve the effectiveness of the program in responding to multiple-year disasters.
The WFIP and the federal government’s Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance (AIDA) program are combined in British Columbia under WFIP as one program. The costs are shared 60-40 by the federal and provincial governments respectively.
To date, 938 claims have been processed for a total of more than $14 million to cover income losses in the 1998 claim year.
The federal government is covering negative margins and will pay its 60 per cent share to producers in B.C.
Producers will automatically receive a separate payment from the AIDA administration to compensate for negative margins and for other differences between the federal and provincial programs.
The AIDA program has paid out an average of $21,000 to eligible producers in British Columbia.
WFIP forms are available at the local agriculture ministry office and the ministry’s Web site.
For further information, call 1-888-576-FARM (3276) or e-mail the program office at wfip@agf.gov. bc.ca.