Tough Times Continue For Wild Rice Producers

Tough Times Continue For Wild Rice Producers

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 14:49

Wild rice growers who signed onto the new crop insurance plan at the beginning of the season are likely happy they did, following another unproductive year.

La Ronge agrologist Gerry Ivanochko says harvesters are facing very poor numbers for the fourth year in a row.

He says roughly one million pounds of wild rice was harvested this summer and fall. Ivanochko notes more than twice that is harvested in a good year.

Ivanochko blames high water levels and unfavorable weather conditions.

He says the east and west sections of the North were most affected, while the central areas brought in the most crop.

Ivanochko says a production list still needs to be compiled, but there will likely be insurance payments going to producers in some regions of northern Saskatchewan.

The new crop insurance scheme for wild rice stipulates that if a region does not produce 70 per cent of the 10-year average in a given season, all insured harvesters in that region qualify for insurance payments.