FARMS, including those in Negros Occidental, affected by rice bug (waya-waya) and rice grain bug are now covered by the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC).
After their meeting last January 11, the Board of Directors of PCIC approved the inclusion of rice bug and rice grain bug in addition to other pests and diseases considered as perils to be covered by the rice insurance program.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) of Negros Occidental had earlier said that farms in the province damaged by pests and diseases will now be covered through the Negros First Universal Crop Insurance Program (NFUCIP), which is implemented in partnership with the PCIC.
This, after the agency positively responded to the request of Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., citing the huge production losses brought by pest infestation to the province’s crop sector last year.
Jose Ma. Torres, insurance underwriter and officer-in-charge of PCIC-Negros Occidental, Monday, January 29, said the request of the governor has spurred the coverage of all farms in the country affected by rice bug and rice grain bug through other insurance programs of the PCIC, not only the NFUCIP.
Torres said these programs include Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), Sikat Saka Program (SSP), and Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP), among others, as long as the affected farms are growing rice.
“Based on our monitoring, the rice grain bug which infested farms in Negros Occidental last year is first in Western Visayas thus, it can be considered a newly-occurring pest,” he said, adding that the PCIC has not previously included even the rice bug since the infestation was still manageable during that time.
Due to the increasing number of complaints on the effects of rice bug and rice grain bug infestation, the PCIC decided to include the two pests as perils in its programs starting this month.
“This means that farmers can now be indemnified if their farms are infested by these pests,” Torres said, adding that only those damaged by snail (kuhol) and bird (maya) are not included in the insurance program for rice.
In November last year, grain bug infestation has caused at least P8-million damage to rice plantations in Sipalay City.
OPA is now validating reports of another grain bug infestation in some rice farms in Pontevedra and La Carlota City.
For farmers to avail of indemnity claims, they should have applied first for crop insurance whether through NFUCIP, RSBSA or other programs of the agency.
Torres said the damage should be more than 11 percent of the total area for them to file notice of loss and avail of the claims.
The submission of notice of loss to the PCIC can be done by the farmers through the assistance of the local government unit (LGU) or the OPA.
“Through this added provision of the crop insurance program, more farmers are enabled to recover from the losses brought by pest infestation. They can use the claims as capital to purchase seeds and fertilizers,” Torres said.
Capacitating local farmers will also contribute to sustaining and even increasing the province’s total rice production output every year, he added.