Capitol expands insurance program, up to 16T farmers, fishermen covered

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Provincial Government has expanded the coverage of its agri-fishery insurance program, which can now insure up to 16,000 farmers and fishermen.

Governor Hilario Davide III and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) signed a memorandum of agreement last week for this development.

This year, the Capitol has allocated P10 million as insurance premium. It targets16,000 farmers and fishermen, 5,000 hectares of assorted crops and vegetables, 4,000 heads of livestock and 1,500 fishing boats.

Based on PCIC's recent data, the Capitol agri-fishery insurance has insured 6,278 farmers and fishermen from January to May 2016.  In the same period, the PCIC approved P340,000 for the indemnity claims of 86 farmers and fishermen in the province.

Crescencio Deligero, PCIC regional manager, said the amount of indemnity claims for the entire Cebu could still rise following the long drought.

The amended insurance program now covers bigger farm areas, more farm products and commodities per farmer. High value commodities such as banana, coffee, cacao, and cassava have been added.  Ornamental plants, pullets/layers, broilers as well as fish cage are now also covered in the amended insurance program.

However, the amended program requires, for instance, rice and corn farmers of 2,500 sq. m. to three hectare from 1,000 sq. m. to 10,000 sq. m. per farmer to avail of the insurance.

For mango planters, the program will cover a maximum of 10 trees per farmer, which is only half of the original insurance program signed in 2011.

As to fishery, the program covers also a maximum of 50 monolines of seaweed grower at 100-meter length with P600 per monocline. This is also half of what was required in the previous program.

Provincial Agriculturist Dr. Roldan Saragena said though that the expanded insurance program will protect more beneficiaries and their livelihood from unexpected incidents.

He expects more beneficiaries to enroll in the Capitol's agri-fishery insurance program as the PCIC already scrapped its Yolanda (Haiyan) insurance program this year.

The insurance program is offered free of charge to qualified beneficiaries.

Those who want to avail of such insurance program of the Capitol are advised to submit their applications to their respective muni-cipal or agriculture offices. Application forms are also available at the local government units' agriculture offices.

However, the beneficiary must be a member of a farmers' or fishermen's cooperative, association or organization duly recognized by the LGU, or other government agencies.

The City or Municipal Agriculture Office will review and submit the application forms to the OPA.

On the other hand, other farmers and fishermen were also enrolled in the Department of Budget and Management's Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture. (FREEMAN)