The program also includes agricultural facilities and related infrastructures, with the end in view of encouraging lending institutions to extend credit to the agricultural sector.
THE House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved on third and final reading a measure that seeks to expand the services of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) and at the same time encourage private sector participation in agricultural insurance.
Passed on the strength of 268 votes during nominal voting was House Bill (HB) No. 7387, which seeks to further revise Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1467, creating the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation, as amended.
The measure cited the policy of the State to develop and support an adequate agricultural insurance program as a mechanism for managing the risks inherent in agriculture and stabilizing the financial fluctuations suffered by agricultural producers in case of loss on all agricultural commodities, whether crops or livestock.
The program also includes agricultural facilities and related infrastructures, with the end in view of encouraging lending institutions to extend credit to the agricultural sector.
“It shall also be the policy of the State to promote the modernization of the agricultural sector by mitigating the risks inherent to the industry and which increase the barriers to increased market participation in businesses related to agriculture,” it said.
“Towards this end, the State shall encourage active private sector participation in extending agricultural insurance to members of the agricultural sector by allowing the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation to undertake reinsurance agreements with private sector agricultural insurers and to extend its insurance services to livestock, aquaculture and fishery, agro fishery, and forest plantation insurance,” it further said.
As per HB No.7387, Section 1 of PD No. 1467, as amended, will be further amended to read as follows: “SEC. 1. Creation of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation. – There is hereby created a body corporate to be known as the “Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation” (PCIC and herein called the Corporation) which shall be attached to the Department of Agriculture for budgetary purposes.”
Under the measure, the PCIC shall insure farmers against losses arising from natural calamities, plant diseases, and pest infestations.
Such insurance covers all agricultural commodities, including palay crops and others, without prejudice to the inclusion of other non-crop agricultural assets such as livestock, aquaculture and fishery, agroforestry, forest plantations, machineries, equipment, transport facilities, and other related infrastructures, as the Board of Directors of PCIC may determine.
