The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) has distributed about P70 million worth of indemnity claims to farmers in Negros Occidental enrolled under the Negros First Universal Crop Insurance Program (NFUCIP). The figure comprises 15,343 farmers with total area of about 16,300 hectares covered since the program started in 2011. NFUCIP, an initiative of the Provincial Government in partnership with the PCIC, mainly aims to help farmers affected by calamities recover from production losses. In December last year, the PCIC has approved the request of Governor Alfredo Marañon to cover under the NFUCIP farms affected by pests and diseases like rice grain bug amid the huge losses it brings to the province’s crop sector. The said request also spurred the approval of the PCIC to include farms infested by rice bug and rice grain bug in all its other insurance programs in the country. PCIC records showed that for 2017 alone, the agency has insured 5,487 farmers in the province with total area of almost 7,000 hectares through NFUCIP. Of which, 3,938 farmers with combined area of almost 4,178 hectares, received indemnity claims worth P17.76 million. Jose Ma. Torres, insurance underwriter and officer-in-charge of PCIC-Negros Occidental, said the bulk of these claims were distributed to farmers with farms affected by typhoons, floods, and heavy rains. He said the PCIC continues to work on covering more farmers in the province through strong collaboration with the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) and with the local government units (LGUs). “We continue to urge rice farmers to enroll in NFUCIP as well as in other insurance programs of the government,” Torres said, reiterating that enabling farmers to lessen adverse effects of perils to crops would also result to improvement in the province’s total production output. Under the modified guidelines of NFUCIP, the enrollment premium per cropping season is still P840. The whole amount, however, will now be shouldered by the Provincial Government as loan. Previously, only P500 is being shouldered by the province while the remaining P340 is the farmer-enrollees’ counterpart. Under the program, farmers may avail of the P17,000 in claims per hectare of damaged farms. OPA said pioneer enrollees will be given priority to avail of the full enrollment coverage. Farmers will pay back the province upon receiving their claims. Moreover, the PCIC reported that in 2011 it distributed indemnity claims worth P2.80 million. In 2012, it released P1.25 million; 2013 - P6.08 million; 2014 - P8.86 million; 2015 - P16.59 million; and 2016 - P17.04 million. Within the seven-year period, the PCIC has insured 26,090 farmers with a total area of 28,877 hectares and enrollment premium worth P49.19 million. Source - http://www.sunstar.com.ph