Higher crop insurance for rice farmers pushedTHE Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) should have at least a budget of P300-million annually to cover as many farmers as possible. “Insurance is as equally important to farmers as access to credit. With crop insurance, the ill effects of the damage from typhoons and other natural disasters would be minimized, while the bankability of farmers’ produce would be increased,” explained the Committee on Agriculture and Food, noting that “crop insurance will give farmers’ yield added value.” In the province, the Department of Agriculture and the Negros Occidental provincial government recently launched the crop insurance program here to benefit at least 10,000 rice farmers.