We all know the rising inflationary costs that have been incurred by producers in the last number of years, especially in the last four or five. It's not all due to tariffs on aluminum and steel. Land rent, which was $25 to possibly $50 an acre five or six years ago, has risen to well over $100 per acre now. Those expenses aren't eligible. Some of our machinery repairs, like tires and engine overhauls, cost thousands of dollars. We can't use those as expenses for AgriStability.
It takes too long for these programs to react, too. We have producers in the west and west-central part of the province, as you're familiar with, Mr. Bonk, who have suffered through anywhere from five to nine years of drought. A lot of them are enrolled in some of these business risk management programs, like AgriStability, and haven't collected a dollar. We've since heard, in the last month, that Saskatchewan Crop Insurance is still working on 2024 claims. I mentioned in my comments that sometimes, before farmers would be eligible to collect some of this money or be entitled to it, the auction sale would be over and they would have left the industry.
I think it's important at this time in Saskatchewan agriculture, which has 44% of the arable land, that we make sure we can retain as many farm families as possible on that land. Without some kind of business risk management tool to sustain agriculture, it also reflects on food sustainability worldwide.