WITH typhoons, drought and pestilence a regular problem in the country, farmers under the Pantawid Pampamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in Central Visayas are urged to have their crops and livestock insured.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Central Visayas and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) formally signed a memorandum of agreement to help farmers under the government’s conditional cash transfer program.
With insurance for their crop and livestock, the farmers can protect themselves in case of illness, injury, disability, retrenchment, harvest failure, maternity concerns, and old age.
Merceditas Jabagat, DSWD-Central Visayas director, said that with the partnership of the farmer beneficiaries of 4Ps through the Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran Association (SKA), which is under the agency’s Sustainable Livelihood Program, farmers can have affordable insurance for their crops and livestock. She said that with DSWD as the lead agency, the partnership is serious in promoting programs that lessen risks to the farmers’ income.
Vulnerable
Jabagat said those in the agricultural sector are the most vulnerable in times of disasters.
As part of the deal with DSWD, PCIC will conduct insurance trainings and orient farmer beneficiaries about insurance policies and coverages.
High-value
Insurance programs offered by PCIC include rice crop insurance, corn crop insurance, high-value commercial crop insurance, non-crop agricultural asset insurance, livestock insurance, and term insurance, among others.
About 8,000 Pantawid farmers have been identified as target beneficiaries of the PCIC crop insurance packages in the region.
Majority of them are the provinces of Bohol and Negros Oriental. (JKV)