Who cares about our farmers?
EVERY time a typhoon hits the country, the media never fails to report on the extent of damage to the agriculture sector.
In Pangasinan, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) reported PP24.6 million in damages but such a report only points to the value of agri products (palay, corn, high-value crops, fisheries, and livestock) lost in the food supply chain.
However, nothing is reported about the number of farmers in their locations who lost their crops which amounted to P24.6 million.
Since Pangasinan’s rice farmers are mostly marginalized, one can only wonder how our marginalized farmers can hope to recover from direct losses amounting to P24.6 million. Nobody really knows. What is known is that the inability of our farmers to recoup their losses yearly from typhoons is the main reason why the number of farmers continue to decline. More children of today’s farmers engaged in traditional farming refuse to be tied down to the miserable state of the agricultural sector.
After all, both the national and provincial governments’ reactive response is to provide new inputs to help farmers to continue farming. But what of their losses?
We have the crop insurance program of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation. But how far has the provincial government gone to avail of it to protect and support our farmers?
There is even a free government insurance coverage for crops, livestock, fisheries and even non-agricultural assets for small subsistence farmers but only for farmers listed in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA). As of 2016, only 3112637 farmers are listed.
A report from PCIC ‘s provincial office on the status of the coverage, in the province in addition to the usual reports on damage, is vital for a full appreciation the state and plight of our farmers in the province.
Specifically, how many of our farmers are listed by both the PCIC and the Provincial Agriculture Office to date and can avail of insurance to cover the P24.6-M in agri losses, with or without the contribution of the provincial government? And, how many farmers are eligible to receive the P20,000.00 multi-risk insurance for every hectare of palay and corn?
We hope the next time the PDRRMO releases a report on damage to the agricultural sector, it states how many farmers were affected, and how many can hope to recover their losses through PCIC.
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