Organic Council hopes report leads to enhanced data accuracy

In an era when cropping decisions are increasingly informed by up-to-the-minute data, authors of the just-released Organic Corn and Wheat Value Chain Report for Ontario found the availability of data specific to organic crops is sorely inadequate.

Read Also

University of Waterloo engineers stronger agriculture ties

The University of Waterloo engineering program is sowing the seeds of agriculture technology development, one partnership at a time. “Collectively,…

Why it matters: The Organic Council of Ontario hopes to use report recommendations to lobby government for funds to improve data collection and recording for the organic crop sector.

Much of the organic corn (and, to a lesser extent, organic wheat) grown in the province is transferred directly from farmer to farmer with only estimated or weigh-scale recordings of yield.

Yields submitted to Agricorp for crop insurance purposes are more likely to be inaccurate on the organic side due to perceived inconsistencies in the way farmers do or do not utilize specialized Agricorp organic crop insurance.

SureSource Commodities organic lead Rob Wallbridge, a member of the Organic Council of Ontario (OCO) board who was among the report’s authors, told Farmtario that the collection and provision of organic crop pricing data has improved somewhat since the expansion into Ontario last year of the Manitoba-based Organic Grain Hub, which joined OCO in publishing the new report.

But “that has been one of the largest challenges that organic growers and grain buyers have brought up over and over: there’s no good tool out there for organic price discovery.”

The potential inadequacy of relying on Agricorp yield data is explored in the document.

“It is a widely held notion within the organic industry that yields from organic insurance programs are lower than total organic yields that include farmers without organic insurance, though there is no published information to support this,” the report states.

“It is thought that less experienced organic farmers use organic insurance to manage risk on all eligible crop land, while more experienced organic producers enrol only higher risk fields – those with poor fertility or a greater likelihood of weed issues.”

Lower-risk fields, or even entire farms, may be insured conventionally or not at all.

“I’m not sure how many farmers are playing the picking-and-choosing approach,” Wallbridge said.
“In my experience, some of the more established (organic) growers just don’t bother (using crop insurance) at all. And it’s the newer growers, who are accustomed to working with Agricorp and who are worried about experiencing the yield hit that sometimes comes as you work through transitioning ground (to certified organic).”

Agricorp launched specialized organic crop insurance programs beginning in the early 2010s and they’re now available for soybeans, corn, winter spelt, winter wheat, fresh market carrots and fresh market cabbage.

“These plans have claim prices that better reflect the organic market and also typically have higher premium rates than our general plans,” states an explanation on Agricorp’s website.

Wallbridge recalls initial response from growers wasn’t strong because organic prices were simply indexed from conventional prices. But OCO began working with Agricorp and organic grain buyers about three years ago to strengthen organic price accuracy.

“There is better data now around pricing” in the province’s organic crop insurance program, he said.