Tarabayen Ti Cagayan (Support Cagayan), Syngenta gives hope to farmers affected by Typhoon Ompong

SYNGENTA PHILIPPINES, a leading agricultural seed and crop protection company, recently visited Baggao and Gattaran, two of the hardest hit farming communities by Typhoon Ompong in Cagayan province. Calling their effort “Tarabayen Ti Cagayan” (Support Cagayan), the team from Syngenta distributed food relief packs, sacks of rice and bags of the company’s high-yielding corn seeds to help farmers get back on their feet and start planting again, especially those who had been unable to harvest their crops before the typhoon hit.

Addressing the farmers he personally visited, the company’s president and commercial unit head, Jet Parma, said it was important that farmers realized they can recover from adversity and start over by going back to planting. “We need to rise up,” he urged farmers. Syngenta is able to help them by bringing them products that will help them increase yields in their farms. One such product that the company gave away in the outreach program is the NK 8840, a Bt corn variety that bested other varieties in a highest-yield corn derby conducted by the Department of Agriculture.

Aside from that, by way of launching its new program called Syngenta Tiwala Insurance, which combines sales, marketing, and corporate social responsibility elements in one package, the company also gave 40 farmers free accidental death insurance. With the Tiwala Insurance, in which Syngenta partnered with Insular Life, a farmer and his or her spouse can get free accidental death insurance coverage worth R50,000 to as much as R100,000 each upon their purchase of Syngenta’s seeds and/or crop protection products. For the outreach activity in Cagayan, Syngenta gave 40 farmers an opportunity to have the insurance for free.