Production Insurance
Burley tobacco

How it works

When you enrol in Production Insurance, you are guaranteed a level of production based on your yield history and the level of coverage you choose. A claim may be paid if an insured peril causes your yield to fall below your guaranteed production.

Production Insurance covers you for losses due to adverse weather, disease, pests, wildlife, or other uncontrollable natural perils, except for perils excluded in the Contract of Insurance – General Terms and the Commodity-Specific Terms: Tobacco on the Publications page.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Production Insurance for burley tobacco begins on May 20 and ends on October 1.

Note: Agricorp may extend the coverage period if an insured peril delays harvest.

You must insure 100 per cent of your burley tobacco acres.

Available coverage

The following coverage options are in addition to production loss coverage.

Replant coverage

If you have damage to at least one-half of an unbroken acre, as verified by an Agricorp adjuster and by the processor, you may be eligible for a claim payment under replant coverage in addition to any production loss claim. To be eligible, you must report damage before replanting, and the crop must be replanted before June 20 of the crop year.

​Calculating your coverage and claims

Your coverage depends on:

  • Average farm yield
  • Coverage level

Average farm yield (AFY)

An AFY (in pounds) is calculated and used as a benchmark to determine if your actual production is below average.

Due to the timing of the annual tobacco harvest, AFYs for black or burley tobacco are lagged by one year. As a result, your current year’s AFY does not include your previous year’s tobacco yield.

AFY for existing plan participants

Your AFY is calculated using up to the past 10 years of your own reported yields. It is an average of your buffered yields.

AFY for new plan participants

Each crop is assigned an underwritten five-year AFY that is based on a variety of factors such as soil type, drainage, township averages, etc.

Each year that you participate in the plan, your actual yield replaces an underwritten yield until your AFY is composed entirely of your own actual yields.

Yield buffering

Unusually high and low yields are adjusted to stabilize and lessen the impact of extreme yields on your AFY.

  • If your actual yield is above the upper threshold (130 per cent of your AFY), the yield is buffered two-thirds of the way down to the upper threshold.
  • If your actual yield is below the lower threshold (70 per cent of your AFY), the yield is buffered two-thirds of the way up to the lower threshold.

Coverage level

When you apply or renew each year, you choose one coverage level for each crop. It may be used to determine your guaranteed production.

Guaranteed production

If an insured peril causes your actual yield to fall below your guaranteed production, a production loss claim may be paid on the difference.

The guaranteed production is the lesser of:

  • The AFY (as determined by Agricorp) multiplied by your selected coverage level, or
  • The total tonnage specified in the contract between you and your processor

If damage is reported by the replanting deadline, and Agricorp agrees that the crop should be replanted but cannot be replanted due to an insured peril, the insurance coverage or your guaranteed production is reduced by half.

Claim price

The claim price is used to calculate your claim if an insured peril causes your yield to fall below your guaranteed production. The claim price is calculated each year at renewal time.






Canadian Agricultural Partnership – Agricorp – Ontario – Canada