Around 382 local rice and corn farmers who were affected by recent calamities received indemnification payments from the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), the city’s Public Information Office (PIO) reported Thursday.

in a statement, the PIO said over PHP4.2 million worth of indemnity payments were received by the affected farmers on Wednesday.

“The farm products of these rice and corn farmers were affected by the floods that hit the city in December last year and in January 2023,” it said.

It added that the amount received by the affected farmers depended on the damage they incurred as assessed by the City Agriculture Office (CAO) and the Department of Agriculture.

“The city government of Butuan, under the administration of Mayor Ronnie Vicente Lagnada, continues to work with the other concerned agencies to ensure the protection of our farmers,” the PIO said.

The city government, through the CAO, has urged farmers to avail of the PCIC insurance program for protection against agricultural losses due to floods and other natural calamities, it added.

Meanwhile, some 42 rice farmers from the different barangays here have undergone a Field Day Cum Preferential Analysis under the Nextgen Plus Project Rice Varietal Trial Program for the first semester of 2023.

The activity, which took place Wednesday, was conducted at the Butuan City Rice Research Center in Barangay Los Angeles.

“The Nextgen Plus Project is an initiative being implemented under the Rice Sector Strategy of the Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Rice Research Institute,” the PIO said.

Under the initiative, the rice farmers are given information on plant breeding with the use of molecular biology, stratified multilocation testing, and computational power.

The program also helps the farmers identify the best-performing rice varieties which can thrive from pests and diseases. (PNA)