Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-crime Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party List Rep. Eric Go Yap recently filed in the House of Representative House Bill (HB) 7011 providing for a weather index-based agricultural insurance for farmers to allow them to be able to recover from the wrath of natural calamities that frequently ruin their farms.
Congressman Yap, who chairs the powerful House Committee on Appropriations recognize the fact that because of climate change, weather patterns have become unpredictable and natural calamities have become destructive resulting to millions of pesos worth of damages to agriculture which is one of the country’s major economic climbers.
Under the proposed bill, funds for the weather index-based agricultural insurance will be drawn from the budget of concerned government agencies so that farmers will have available resources to use in covering from the destruction inflicted by weather disturbances to their produced.
Congressman Yap pointed out that concerned government agencies musts extended at most assistance to farmers who are frequently suffering from heavy losses because of destructive weather disturbances that visit country annually, thus, the allocation of sufficient funds to cover their losses must be provided.
According to him, the agriculture industry is a vital component of development that is why government should ensure that farmers are given the appropriate support to allow them to immediately recover from a calamity so that they will not be indebted in trying to individually look into ways and needs on how to rise up from disasters.
The lawmaker stated that despite effort of concerned government agencies and local government to bring to the attention of authorities the need for such insurance, the same has never been given sufficient attention despite the fact that the food that is on the table of Filipino families actually come from the produced of the hard working farmers.
Congressman Yap explained that farmers could be classified as members of the vulnerable and marginalized sector of the society that is why they are also entitled for whatever benefits that come from the government regardless of their status because they are actually the once that are feeding the people and providing them sufficient food for their daily subsistence.
He claim that because of climate change farmers are now confused on how to work on their established cycle that is why the grant of insurance to them will be the governments way of showing concern for their welfare so that they will not end up heavily indebted due to the losses incurred from the effects of natural calamities.
More than 200 thousand individuals from the different municipalities in the province rely on vegetable production as their primary source of income. Further, Benguet remains to be the source of over 80% of the highland vegetable being sold in the different market around the country. By HENT
