Rice farmers get subsidy for crop insurance premium

THE Provincial Government of Davao del Norte will subsidize half of the insurance premium of small rice farmers for their crops.

Romulo Tagalo, Davao del Norte assistant provincial administrator, said in Friday's Kapihan sa PIA that the crop insurance subsidy will help address the burden of rice farmers who were devastated by Typhoon Pablo.

Tagalo said the crop insurance especially for rice will help sustain production in Davao Region, one of the main producers of rice in the country.

The province identified four pilot areas covering a total of 20,000 hectares including the municipalities of Asuncion, Dujali, Carmen, and New Corella at 500 hectares each municipality.

At present, Tagalo said there are at least 17 rice farmers whose applications are now being processed by the province.

The crop insurance will be extended to self-paying rice farmers at P670 per year. The province will should the other P670 annual insurance premium.

Each farmer will be paying 6.7 percent of the totaled insured asset.

A rice farmer, whose crops has been ravaged by a calamity can get P20,000 per insured hectare.

The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) has allocated P22 million for insurance claims of clients in the banana industry.

PCIC is the government's implementing agency in its agricultural insurance program and is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture.

It provides protection against damage loss of non-crop agricultural assets including machineries, equipment, transport facilities and other related infrastructures.