| FARGO -- About 65 Red River Valley sugar beet growers will
be fully covered for crops lost to root rot this year, after earlier
insurance claims were rejected, Rep. Earl Pomeroy said Wednesday.
The payments will total up to $2 million and cover about 10,000
affected acres, Pomeroy, D-N.D., said.
The move comes after the Department of Agriculture's Risk Management
Agency and the farmers' insurance company, Rural and Community Insurance
Services, had earlier declined to pay 100 percent of the losses.
to cover the company's claims, saying the farmers should have left test
strips of damaged crops.
The insurance company then denied full coverage to farmers. Some
growers who had already received 100 percent payments for their losses
were told they would have to send back 30 percent -- or risk not being
covered next year, Glenn Pomeroy said.
The Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association complained to both
the Minnesota and North Dakota insurance departments. |