By Dominic B. dela Cruz (Staff Reporter)
City of Batac—The city
government here has requested the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC)
for the inclusion of mango growers in their insurance program.
The city government said the insurance should cover damaged mango
fruits caused by insect pests and diseases, and natural calamities.
Reports showed that mango, which is considered to be the national
fruit, is the third most important fruit crop in the country, next to banana
and pineapple.
The Philippines have lands and good climate that favor the
cultivation of one of the best mango variety in the world—the Philippine
Carabao Mango—and other indigenous and introduced varieties, strains and
selections.
It also shows that the country played an important role in the
mango global market since 1980 with exports.
Batac councilor Kichel Jomarie Pungtilan, who moved for its
approval, said the city has around 181 farmers engaged in mango growing, where
majority of them has a small farm with an average of 10 to 15 mango trees.
It was learned that the existing insurance program of PCIC for
mango was specified for trees only wherein the insurance program only covers
the death of the insured mango trees caused by natural calamities such as
typhoon, flood, drought, tornado and earthquake as provided in Section VII of
PCIC-Mango Tree Mortality Insurance Policy.
During the previous years, reports showed that many mango growers
abandoned their mango orchards and planted other high value crops due to the
increase of cost of production, climate change, emergencies of insect pests
like cecid fly, also known as “kurikong or nora-nora”, that damaged the mango
fruits, thus, affecting growers’ income.
Relative to this, the Batac mango growers are requesting the
consideration of the PCIC to include the damaged mango fruits caused by insect
pests and diseases and natural calamities be covered in the insurance program
of the PCIC.
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