Farmers faced with flooded crops following heavy rains last summer can expect no immediate rebound from the losses they were forced to incur, says the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture.
Richard Melvin said advance payments accessed by the province through the AgriStability fund have helped alleviate the cash-flow crunch faced by farmers.
But Melvin said many farmers will still have to absorb a loss and that doesn’t set the industry up well for this growing season.
“When they look forward to spring they’ll be asking very tough questions about whether they can afford to plant crop or whether they should plant crop,” Melvin said from his Canning, Kings County farm.
He said it’s a very serious situation because many of the farms affected, including Hanks Farm Market in Millville, have been family operations for decades, producing goods for Nova Scotians and markets across the continent.
“We really need them to stay in business,” Melvin said.
Fields were transformed into ponds last August after rain completely saturated farmers’ fields to the point where vegetables began to rot.
