The Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), a government owned and controlled corporation under the Department of Agriculture, stands ready to respond to claims by insured farmers in Luzon whose standing rice and corn crops were damaged by recent southwest monsoon and typhoon Maring.

The lone agricultural insurance firm in the country has assessed damage to insured farms in four regions, namely: Cordillera Administrative Region and Regions I, III and IV, and has set aside some P110 Million in indemnity for the affected farmers.

In a report to DA Secretary Proceso J. Alcala, PCIC said that its initial assessment showed that crops in some 25,971 hectares of insured farms, tilled by 20,382 farmers, were damaged by southwest monsoon.

The PCIC assured the affected farmers that payment of their claims will be released in 20 days or less, after these have been filed.

The most affected crop sector was rice, where over 25,878 hectares tilled by 20,287 farmers, were damaged. Cost of crop loss was estimated at P109 Million. The corn sector sustained damage in some 93 hectares tilled by 95 farmers. Loss was estimated at P0.853Million.

Hardest hit among the regions was Region III which sustained the biggest damage on all indicators, namely number of insured farmers, 13,850; hectarage, 18,912 hectares; and estimated loss, P61 Million.

Among the provinces, Pampanga got hit the most with total crop loss of over P22.527 Million in some 7,335 hectares of rice, affecting some 5,241 insured farmers.