The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has vowed to ensure nationwide coverage of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) under the P1 billion joint DAR-Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) insurance program.
Dubbed as the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries-Agricultural Insurance Program (ARB-AIP), the program aims to cover farmers’ crops damaged due to climate change and other natural calamities, such as diseases, pest infestation, and natural calamities, such as typhoons, floods, drought, tornado earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The program aims to cushion the impact and transfer the risks brought about by agricultural losses due to such tragic events.
The DAR and PCIC recently signed a joint DAR-PCIC Memorandum Circular 4, Series of 2021, allocating the P1 billion from the PCIC fund as an insurance premium for the ARBs nationwide.
In a news statement, DAR Secretary John R. Castriciones said the joint DAR-PCIC program, a collaborative effort of the two agencies aims to ensure that 100 percent of the ARBs would be covered under the ARB-AIP and enable them to access timely support interventions from other partner organizations.
He emphasized, however, that only ARBs listed under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) could avail themselves of the insurance program.
“The insurance program will be of great help to our farmer-beneficiaries since it guarantees that they can recover farm losses that they may have incurred as a result of natural calamities,” Castriciones said.
He said that the DAR, through its provincial offices, will identify ARBs and ARB household members of the RSBSA in their areas who can be eligible for free insurance coverage.
Castriciones noted that DAR would also assist in the preparation and timely submission of the required document for the farmers’ indemnity claims and in the conduct of claims adjustment verification on notices of loss and claims filed by the concerned ARBs.
To ensure the effective and smooth implementation of the ARB-AIP insurance program, the DAR and the PCIC agreed to create an operations team, a secretariat, and a DAR-PCIC Regional Coordinating Team.
A similar insurance program was successfully implemented in 2013, with the DAR shouldering the P1-billion program fund for the farmers’ insurance premium. Over half a million ARBs nationwide are continuously enrolled under the program.
For 2019 and 2020, DAR requested an insurance fund amounting to P1 billion for each year as insurance premium subsidy for ARBs from the PCIC’s General Appropriations Act.
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