via pia.gov.ph

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan has approved the enrollment of up to 2,000 hectares of farmland with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) to ensure that the crops are covered in case of calamity such as the recent typhoon Pablo which destroyed billions of rice lands and banana farms in the three Davao provinces.

“Kani nga scheme mag work murag Philhealth nga kung masalanta man ang crops kung enrolled sya sa PCIC makakuha ug benepisyo (the scheme works much like Philhealth where there are benefits in case the crops are destroyed by any calamity provided it is enrolled with PCIC),’ Davao del Norte Provincial Information Officer Romulo Tagalo said.

PCIC offers a variety of insurance coverage including rice crop insurance, corn crop insurance, high-value commercial crop insurance, non-crop agricultural asset insurance, livestock insurance, fisheries insurance and term insurance packages.

“We have also been informed that three thousand sacks of the five thousand sacks of certified seeds we have requested have arrived,” he said. These are grains that will be distributed to the farmers for planting, he added.

Tagalo said estimates show that typhoon Pablo has brought P1.5-billion worth of agriculture damages and up to P200-million worth of infrastructure damages. However, he said, the province has yet to finalize a complete report on the damages caused by the recent typhoon.

He said Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario has given the department heads up to January 15, 2013 to come up with a unified data of the extent of the damage of the typhoon. The consolidated report, he said, will be sent to Malacanang in anticipation of the release of the calamity fund by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

We expect the damage to accumulate considering the continuous flooding in the various municipalities of the province even before the communities can recover from the typhoon, he said.