P17B insurance protection for ARBs provided by DAR and PCIC

Quezon City, Philippines, September 17, 2022 - The insurance protection plan is contained in the joint program called the “Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries-Agricultural Insurance Program (ARB-AIP).” The ARB-AIP will benefit over 224,000 ARBs or members of their households who are actually cultivating around 330,000 hectares of land and engaged in raising some 30,700 farm animals, who are eligible for insurance premium subsidy.

From these ARBs, there are estimated 99,580 rice farmers tilling 178,801 hectares;  37,772 corn farmers cultivating around 72,506 hectares; and about 85,760 commercial crop farmers cultivating around 78,633 hectares. Nine hundred twenty four (924) farmers raise 30,742 animals.

Each eligible ARB shall have access to protection cover up to three hectares (maximum award per CARP beneficiary) and up to three types of insurance coverage only which is good for two cropping seasons.

The Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), has partnered with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to provide some P17.1 billion worth of crop insurance protection to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) over the next two cropping seasons.

The insurance protection plan is the first such collaboration between two of the country’s main rural development agencies and the biggest group plan ever issued by the DA-PCIC. It aims to provide the ARBs a safety net against fortuitous events caused by climate change, also crop pests and diseases.  

Additionally, beneficiaries will be provided protection against loss of limbs or life under its Accident and Dismemberment Security Scheme. To qualify, the program beneficiaries must be participants of key DAR programs, such as the Agrarian Reform Connectivity andEconomic Support Service (ARCCESS), Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP), Credit Assistance Program for Program Beneficiaries Development (CAP-PBD) and Microfinance Capacity Development in Agrarian Reform Areas. DAR will identify the eligible beneficiaries.

DAR will put up the premium subsidy worth P1B from the DAR-GPS for Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries. Of the amount, P533.78M will be allocated for rice farmers, P385.82, corn farmers, P79.09M for high value crop farmers, P1.31M for livestock. The premium cost for the individual farmer’s life and limb coverage amounting to P5.43M would come from interest income of the DAR-Government Premium Subsidy (DAR-GPS) Fund.

For its part, DA-PCIC will provide the insurance cover worth some P17.07B from which some P4.94B will be reserved for rice, P2B for corn, P2.35B for commercial crops, P13M for livestock, and some P7.77B for the individual farmer’s life and limb.

In cases where the insured risks happens, the DA-PCIC will pay out damage claims from these beneficiaries within 20 days, less than the 60-day reglementary period. This is made possible by the ISO-certified systems and processes established by the DA-PCIC.

Depending on the extent of damage and the cost of farm investment, the farmers may receive payments for damages worth P39,000 to P52,000 per hectare for inbred and hybrid rice, respectively;  P28,000 and P40,000 for every hectare of open-pollinated and hybrid corn, respectively;  and  up to P50,000 for life and limb. These are various indemnity figures for commercial crops and animals as there are many types of crops and animals involved.

Link: DAR-PCIC orientation (on Facebook page)

HR Bill okeys funding for DAR and DA to insure ARBs under PCIC

The House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee has approved the provision for funding of a full insurance coverage for all qualified Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Under the Bill, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) are required to include in their agencies’ programs the operational requirements for the implementation of the ARB insurance program. The House Committee on Agrarian Reform has already endorsed the Bill for plenary approval.

The ARB insurance intends to provide crop insurance protection covering about 224,000  ARBs or members of their farming households involving some 330,000 hectares of agricultural land  and raising some 30,700 farm animals. The bill would provide ARBs with the insurance protection against compensable losses arising from natural calamities, plant diseases, and pest infestations of their crops and those affecting their livestock and farm machineries.

Specifically, compensable losses from which ARBs are insured include natural calamities such as typhoon, flood, drought, earthquake, volcanic eruption, frost, and other destructive natural phenomena such as heat and hot wind. These also include plant diseases caused by pathogens, bacteria, fungi, viruses, virus-like pathogens and other similar foreign bodies, pest infestations caused by nematodes, insects, mites and spiders, millipedes and centipedes, symphylans, slugs and snails, among others, and loss of life and/or injury to the qualified ARB from accident or any other causes.

The insurance shall cover crops such as: palay; corn; sugarcane; high-value crops as defined in Section 4 (b) of RA No. 9700, otherwise known as the “High-Value Crops Development Act of 1995.” Also covered are coconut; tobacco; aquaculture; livestock; and non-crop agricultural assets.

The Bill would complement the already existing agricultural insurance for ARBs presently participating in the agrarian reform production credit program (APCP) and the credit assistance programs for program beneficiaries development in the financing programs implemented by the DA, DAR, Land Bank which cover all the regular insurance as implemented by the PCIC.

Insured ARB in Solana, Cagayan receives indemnification from typhoon damage in Solana, Cagayan.

ARBs receive indemnity thru DAR-PCIC Agri Insurance Program

Most of palay, corn destroyed during 3^rd quarter draught

A farmer-beneficiary receives indemnity check for his drought-damaged crops 

ALCALA, CAGAYAN -The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Philippine CropInsurance Corporation (PCIC) is presently distributing crop loss indemnity checks in favor of affected agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) who have availed of the DAR-PCIC Agrarian Reform Beneficiary-Agricultural Insurance Program(ARB-AIP) in Cagayan province.

According to Virgilio M. Acasili, Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) of Cagayan-Batanes offices (DARPO-Batanes has been annexed to DARPO-Cagayan), they have already paid some of the farmers through Land Bank checks in order for them to be able to at least purchase the seeds/inputs needed for the next planting season without having to resort to heavy borrowing from usurers.

The first and second batches of indemnity payments amounting to a total of Php5,354,721.97 were made for ARBs in the municipalities of Alcala, Amulung, Piat, Gattaran, Lasam, Solana, Sto. Nino and Tuao where some 718.98 hectares of palay and corn cultivated by 449 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) were destroyed by the draught. Another set of schedule for payments of crop indemnity for affected ARBs in other municipalities have been calendared within this month of October 2013.

The ARB-AIP is a P17.1 billion crop insurance coverage plan between the DAR and PCIC, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA), wherein the DAR provides a premium subsidy worth P1 billion.

The insurance program benefits agrarian reform beneficiaries who are members of agrarian reform beneficiary organizations (ARBOs) in Cagayan province.

The ARB-AIP will provide protection for over 224,000 ARBs and members of their households nationwide who are farming around 330,000 hectares of land and raising approximately 30,700 farm animals.

It is a safety net for ARBs against losses caused by crop pests, diseases; losses from damage of farm machineries; and also from the devastating unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change.

In addition, an ARB covered under the program shall receive protection against loss of life or limbs under an Accident and Dismemberment Security Scheme. By:christiandsales