INSURERS TO START OFFERING INSURANCE COVER FOR CROPS, FARM ASSETS

Agriculture insurance to be offered by private insurers with state-run Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) will be piloted this year following the Insurance Commission’s (IC) issuance of rules to expand coverage of crop insurance to also cover farm and fisheries assets.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa on Oct. 15 issued Circular Letter No. 2021-60, serving as agricultural insurance guidelines, which the IC defined as “the insurance of the produce of or assets used in cultivation of crops (grains, cereals and other crops as well as fruits and vegetables), livestock (dairy, cattle, hog and beef), rearing, animal husbandry, poultry farming, dairy farming and fisheries including all value chain activities like production, transportation. storage processing, packaging, preservation and marketing.”

Funa said non-life insurance firms could sell agriculture insurance on their own or offer hybrid products with PCIC.

“PCIC is willing and interested to share relevant data and information, as well as provide and share capacity to private insurance companies that would like to provide agriculture insurance,” Funa said.

While PCIC was already offering multiperil crop insurance to small farmers, the IC noted that the penetration rate remained low at just 2-6 percent among corn farmers and 8-14 percent among rice farmers as of 2017.