Recognizing the importance of protecting the agricultural sector against the multitude of risks, the government set up the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) on June 11, 1978 as the implementing agency of the government’s agricultural insurance program.
The PCIC is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture and its principal mandate is to provide insurance protection to farmers against losses arising from natural calamities, plant diseases and pest, and infestations of their palay and corn as well as other crops. In addition, the PCIC provides protection against damage to/loss of non-crop agricultural assets including but not limited to machineries, equipment, transport facilities and other related infrastructures due to perils insured against. To enhance further the crop insurance program, it can also be offered as surrogate collateral to banks and other financial institutions. PCIC also insures the livestock of farmers.
Although a low profile agency, PCIC has fulfilled its mission to help stabilize the income of agricultural producers, thus contributing to the nation’s economic development.
In the latest annual report for the year 2019, PCIC President Atty. Jovy C. Bernabe cited the key achievements of the corporation as follows:
1. PCIC insured over 3.14 million farmers and fisherfolk, which is 38.78 percent more than the previous year’s record;
2. The number of those provided free insurance under the special programs rose 36.18 percent to about 2.23 million;
3. The number under the regular program rose 45.54 percent to 917,353;
4. The amount of insurance cover provided grew 40.44 percent to about P112.1 billion;
5. The premium income reached P5.72 billion, which is 17.29 percent more than the year before;
6. PCIC used up the entire P3.5 billion available government subsidy for free insurance and added some more from its Agri Agra Funds to push the entire government subsidy provided to P5.49 billion; and
7. PCIC paid P4.17 billion in claims, nearly 20 percent more than the previous year, to 569,344 farmers and fisherfolk.
These achievements were complemented with organizational efforts to continue to increase PCIC’s network of partners for agricultural information and advocacy. The corporation increased the number of provincial extension offices and service desks to better service their stakeholders. It continued to fine-tune their processes, which enabled them to address over 90 percent of complaints filed in their regional offices within 20 days, much lesser than the 60 days set by law. PCIC also continues to build its competency-based human resource system and has mapped the competencies and needs of its staff.
Nevertheless, while PCIC has attained significant milestones, it still has a long way toward achieving its optimum in the service of the Filipino farmers and fisherfolk.
At this juncture, we congratulate the management and staff of PCIC for doing a good job and continuing to do so in the future.
The author is a risk management consultant and Editor of Insurance Philippines magazine.