More details about who qualifies for the $450 million in federal and provincial aid should be known this week, Manitoba Agricultural Services Corp.’s manager of claim services said in an interview July 8.
It’s clear farmers with land too wet to seed this spring will qualify for the $30/acre payment, whether they are enrolled in crop insurance or not.
Farmers whose crops were destroyed by excessive rain will also receive money, but an exact definition of who qualifies had not been written as of last week.
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MASC’s David Van Deynze said he expected application forms to be available from the agency’s website this week. Farmers enrolled in crop insurance will likely get forms sent to them directly, he said.
“We’ll have to do a number of inspections after applications to see producers are following along with that concept,” he said.
MASC has administered federal-provincial farm aid programs in the past, including the Manitoba Forage Restoration program in the Interlake last year.
“This will be, at least in my mind, bigger than anything else that we’ve done because it’s the entire province (that has been affected by excess moisture) and it’s almost every producer in the province,” Van Deynze said.
“There will be a huge volume (of applications) we’ll have to work through. That’s just the way it is.” [email protected]
