The National Farmers Union wants the federal government to enact a regulation requiring those signing grain-delivery contracts to offer farmers force majeur protection.
The aim is to protect farmers who, through adverse weather, are unable to fill the contracts to deliver grain after harvest.
The NFU notes that the drought was so severe in parts of the Prairies that yields were as low as two bushels an acre.
Farmers who were unable to deliver the grain their contracts specify have had to buy grain to make up for the shortfalls.
The NFU notes that when the Canadian Wheat Board held a monopoly on exporting wheat, oats and barley, it offered force majeur protection.
Some grain-handling companies still do, but many have not and that has left many farmers in desperate straits.
The NFU recommends farmers be allowed to make up their contract shortfalls from next year’s harvest.
It is also asking the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments to allow farmers late signup privileges for AgriStability, which British Columbia and Manitoba have done.
In those provinces, buy-out shortfalls can be included as an expense in AgriStability program accounting.
