Press Release
October 6, 2009

LOREN BATS FOR PAYMENT OF CROP INSURANCE

Senator Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization (COCAFM) and Senate Oversight Committee on Climate Change (OCC) calls on the Department of Agriculture to work immediately on crop insurance for the damages of Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng in the country's lowland and upland farms and fishfarms. The national government has a subsidy of PhP187.7 million for the crop insurance premium of subsistence farmers under the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) 2009 budget. The national government also provided PCIC for the 2009 an equity of PhP187.7 million for the Crop Insurance Program.

"I call on the national government to prioritize the provision of PhP2-billion for the authorized equity for PCIC for the 2010 budget. If not the whole amount we should provide a substantial part of this amount for 2010 so that our food producers could be assured of compensation for damages caused by ravages of nature.", Loren said.

She also urges the Department to identify basic needs communities under the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 or AFMA where landless farmers and fisherfolk in vulnerable communities reside and alert the member agencies of the AFMA Basic Needs Program to provide special assistance to the hungry food producers. She said that the basic communities could be identified in key production areas where there are still landless farm workers as well as subsistence farmers. "These communities could be identified now even if the Strategic Agriculture and Fisheries Development Zones (SAFDZs) are still to be declared. We know who are the landless and impoverished farm workers in these areas. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the National Nutrition Council, members of the AFMA Basic Needs Cluster should know them. The importance in looking and providing for these communities is that our agricultural workers should be provided their basic needs, otherwise they could not produce our food."

The lady senator also calls on the lending facilities of the agriculture and fishery sector--the Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF) and remaining fund in the Agro-Industry Modernization Credit and Financing Program (AMCFP) to expedite lending evaluation procedures as the farm producers need rehabilitation funds in these times of crisis.

"We must also call on the extension workers in the local government units (LGUs) to come to the rescue of farmers and fisherfolk these days so as to inform the Department of Agriculture on ravages on plants and animals as well as on human lives in farms and fishing communities in their jurisdiction." Loren makes this call as she prepares for the interpellation next week on the National Extension Bill which seeks to provide national government grant to LGUs so that the local government extension workers could serve the farmers and fisherfolk more effectively. "We devolved the personnel for agriculture and fishery but not the resources that they need in order to assist the farmers and fisherfolk. We are correcting this mistake which is almost a two-decade problem in the area of local governance.", Loren said.

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