CLAIMS paid for farm insurance in Eastern Visayas dipped to P11 million in 2012 from P14.46 million in 2011, according to the report of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) on Monday.
PCIC Regional Manager Dominico Digamon said that fewer farmers availed crop insurance payment this year probably due to less damages to crops incurred from natural calamities. From 2,967 claimants in 2011, it decreased to only 2,401 last year.
“The region’s weather condition has been favorable to farming in 2012. Typhoons that hit the region are not very destructive and many farmers also managed to control pest infestations in rice farms,” Digamon told Leyte Samar Daily Express.
Of the P11-million indemnities last year, P10.63 million was disbursed for rice farmers, and minimal amount was paid for corn, high value crops, livestock, and death benefit.
For rice farming, indemnity due to pest and diseases accounts the highest at P5.37 million, 18 percent lower than the 2011’s P6.55-million payment.
Releases for typhoon and flooding went down by 54 percent from P4.65 million in 2011 to P2.11 million in 2012. Value of losses, however, significantly went up to P1.14 million last year from only 11,016 a year earlier.
“Rat infestation is the number one reason why farmers claim crop insurance in 2012 with a total loss of P2.61 million claimed by more than 600 farmers. However, it is lower than the P3.14 million payments in 2011 due to rat attacks,” he said.
The PCIC said the most common rice pests and diseases are stemborer, rice tungro virus, rice black bug, and rice blast.
Also affecting the decrease in claims is the delayed implementation of agreement on insurance subsidy between the Department of Agriculture (DA) and PCIC. The farm department’s P5 million premium subsidy for insurance took effect mid of March 2012.
“There was delay of signing of agreement, thus affecting the coverage of some farmers who planted rice during the first quarter of 2012,” he said.
Under the scheme, the DA provides premium subsidy of P500 for every farmer. The regular crop insurance premium is P890 per planting season.
Despite decrease in claims, Digamon said that indemnity was released in all of the six provinces in the country unlike last year that payments were concentrated in Leyte and Northern Samar.
Crop insurance coverage in the region for 2012 has reached P315.47 million with 9,222 beneficiaries.
The government’s crop indemnity program provides insurance protection to agricultural producers against loss of the crops on the account of natural calamities, plant pests and disease, and other perils.
Digamon claimed that they are speeding up their drive to encourage more farmers to avail crop insurance program with the current area insured representing only four percent of the total area planted in the region. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)