BACOLOD City – Farmers in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental affected by flash floods caused by monsoon rains incurred some P5.4 million in production losses, a report from the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) showed.
The losses covered almost 290 hectares of rice, corn and high-value commercial crop farms in the southern Negros town planted by 287 farmers in 12 barangays.
The OPA monitoring report, released on Wednesday, covered the period July 31 to Aug. 16.
The rice sector had the largest cost of damage at around P4.8 million, affecting 264 farmers with combined farming areas of about 286 hectares.
Some of the affected farms were mostly at the seedling stage while others were in the vegetative, reproductive and ripening stages.
Twelve farmers planting high-value commercial crops on 3.2 hectares reported production losses worth P638,500 while a corn farmer with a 0.20-hectare farm incurred P3,000 in losses.
The OPA urged uninsured farmers to avail themselves of crop insurance to help them recover from production losses brought about by calamities.
The provincial government has been partnered with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. since 2011 in implementing the Negros First Universal Crop Insurance Program (NFUCIP).
Enrolment premium per cropping season is P840. Enrolled farmers may avail themselves of a P17,000 claim per hectare of damaged farms.
A total of 30,499 farmers with a total farming area of 33,871.12 hectares were enrolled in the NFUCIP as of July 30.
Since the NFUCIP began seven years ago, capitol has turned over P72.854 million worth of indemnity claims to 15,455 farmers. These covered 16,848 hectares of damaged rice, corn and high-value crops. (PNA)
