Alberta farmers to receive funding to offset their crop losses

Crop producers in Southern and Central Alberta dealing with extraordinary losses as a result of excess moisture and flooding will receive funding from the federal and provincial governments through AgriRecovery to help restore their cropland.

“This is a joint federal-provincial program, and Alberta’s application form is ready to go and is awaiting input from our federal counterparts,” said Jack Hayden, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. “As soon as it is finalized we will post it on-line, mail it out to producers and make it available at all Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) offices. We expect that to be as early as next week.”
Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and Minister Hayden made the announcement following the Federal-Provincial-Territory Ministers meeting in Saskatoon on July 8, along with the governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Under this AgriRecovery response, eligible crop producers who were affected by excess moisture will receive a payment of $30 per acre. The entire cost of the proposed AgriRecovery payments to all eligible Alberta crop producers is $42.1 million, with $25.26 million borne by the federal government and $16.84 million by the province. The program will be administered by AFSC.