The Philippine Crop Insurance is allotting P40.22 million in indemnity to insurance enrollees in Negros Occidental under the Registry System for Basic Sectors of Agriculture, PCIC provincial office manager Jose Maria Torres yesterday said. To claim the indemnity, farmers and fisherfolk must be included in the recent master list released by the PCIC head office, and must not be receiving any crop insurance subsidy from the LGU or other PCIC programs, Torres said. Farmers can insure any product line — rice, corn, high value commercial crops, livestock, and fisheries — at the same time and can insure a maximum of three hectares for crops, three heads for livestock. The amount of P20,000 covers a hectare of rice, corn, or HVCC, P15,000 covers one head of cattle, Swine for fattening P7,000, swine for breeding P10,000, and P10,000 a head of goat or sheep; P15,000 for motorized fishing boats, P6,000 for non-motorized fishing boats, and farmer's equity is covered by P50,000 worth of insurance. As of January 15, a total of 519 farmers have submitted notices of loss — 6 farmers in Binalbagan, 36 in Candoni, 80 in Cauayan, 8 in Himamaylan, 27 in Hinigaran, 85 in Hinobaan, 143 in Kabankalan, 12 in Murcia and 122 in Pontevedra. A total of 6,311 farmers in Neg. Occ. claimed P28,578,284.50 in indemnity in 2015, Torres said. Record for 2015 of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist show that 6,039 rice farmers with 5,883.27 hectares in 29 local government units received claims amounting to P27.15 million under the Negros First Universal Crop Insurance Program. The biggest claims of P4.38 million were acquired by 1,081 rice farmers in San Carlos City covering 1,009.14 hectares. Meanwhile, individuals taking advantage of the drought funds reported at the OPA during the monthly meeting of city and municipal agriculturists yesterday, OPA senior agriculturist Dina Genzola said. The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Division advised farmers in southern Neg. Occ. Not to plant yet even with rainshowers brought by the northeast monsoon or Amihan, Genzola also said. Source - visayandailystar.com