Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Organic growers get DON benefits

The federal and provincial governments have responded to the Organic Council of Ontario by changing the corn salvage benefit program to support eligible organic corn growers.

The council said it “heard from several organic corn farmers who were affected by deoxynivalenol (DON) in their corn crop last year due to wet weather, but were ineligible for the DON corn salvage benefit. 

“OCO was in touch with Agricorp, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Grain Farmers of Ontario in order to understand and get to the bottom of this issue. 

“We learned that when the organic corn insurance plan was developed in 2011, a salvage benefit was excluded due to the nature of the organic market at that time. 

“However, this exclusion does not reflect the current reality of the organic market and the needs of organic producers,” the council said in a news release.

The council expressed its thanks.