Farmers will receive CAD30 (US$28.76) per acre of affected cropland through the AgriRecovery relief programme.

"Farmers are resilient when dealing with weather, but recent flooding has proved difficult to navigate," federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said in a release Thursday (July 8).  "Governments are responding with the largest and fastest AgriRecovery relief package to date to make sure farmers can weather this storm."

In Irvine and Walsh, two areas worst affected by the June 18 flood in southeast Alberta, some farmers lost all of their crops, if they were lucky enough to seed them at all during a long stretch of wet weather that preceded the disaster.

"It's put a lot of stress on a lot of families," said Peter Konosky, a member of the Cypress County Agricultural Service Board. "It would have been nice if (the announcement) came sooner, but it's going to be a big help to a lot of people."

Producers who apply for federal assistance will still be eligible to receive money through risk management programmes such as crop insurance.

"The heavy rains that fell in central and southern Alberta in June have resulted in extraordinary losses for crop producers," Alberta Agriculture Minister Jack Hayden said in the release. "This payment will certainly help address the costs of maintaining these lands so producers can have a better year in 2011."

Today (July 9), Alberta Agriculture is expected to make an announcement on provincial compensation for farmers impacted by the flood.

The federal aid package, which was rolled out in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, will not help ranchers who lost thousands of dollars worth of livestock, feed and fences.
Konosky said the federal government should provide some form of aid to cattle producers.

"It takes a lot of money to rebuild miles of fences," he said. "I'm hoping the government will help with that part of it."

Federal aid for Alberta farmers will be administered through the Agriculture Financial Services Corporation.

The corporation estimates one million acres of seeded farmland in Alberta was damaged by the recent flooding.

"It's very difficult for us to say at this point when we'll start making payments," said Chris Dyck, the corporation's senior manager of insurance operations.

"We're developing our administrative processes as we speak. We're hoping to have an application process out in the next week or two where we'll be able to tell producers how to apply," he added.