Farmer group Samahang Industriya sa Agrikultura (SINAG) said government should provide not only immediate aid to rural communities devastated by the ongoing El Nino phenomenon but also the much-needed production subsidies like crop insurance so that farmers can start replanting or sow alternative crops or livelihood. The group said there is no justification for a very slow and bureaucratic response to calamities such as drought especially that the government has a list of farmers in each locality and that funds have long been allotted and are available. “The Department of Agriculture (DA) is saying that there is a P900 million worth of support for farmers based in Mindanao that is hit by El Nino… The DA must now be put task to immediately and directly provide full farming subsidy to all the farm inputs and services needed by farmers so they can immediately start replanting or sow alternative crops,” said Rosendo So. SINAG  chair. So said among the help that should be provided by the government are seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs needed for production while service support can be done by waiving irrigation fees and relaxing the rules on  immediate insurance assistance from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC). The group is also urging the government to increase PCIC’s budget to at least P16 billion for it to accomplish its mandate of providing immediate and timely insurance coverage to all agricultural producers against losses arising from natural calamities. It can be noted that last year, PCIC’s budget of P1.3 billion, enough to cover around 700,000 farmers while for this year, the state run firm’s budget is at  P1.6 billion. “In this period of extreme climate hazards and unusual weather events, subsistence farmers and artisanal fishers have to cope with an increasing and more frequent crop losses; government should and must provide guaranteed and automatic risk coverage to all crop farmers and other small producers,” So added. The DA said  it will intensify its efforts to address the negative effects of El Niño through its regular program funds and utilization of its quick response fund. In its latest count, the agriculture department said that damages caused by El Nino already reached P5.3 billion, equivalent to a volume of 358,808 metric tons of production loss which affected a total of 129,138 farmers and a total area of 237,215 hectares. Source - malaya.com.ph