BY: JUJU MANUBAG-EMPUERTO
CEBU CITY, June 24 (PIA) --- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-7) and the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) on June 16, 2014 to protect crops and livestocks during disasters.
According to Phoebe Jen Indino Pantawid, DSWD-7 Information Officer for Pantawid Program, the agreement is part of the mitigation efforts against disasters wherein farmer beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) are encouraged to have their crops and livestocks insured.
Being the lead agency in social protection, DSWD has been committed in promoting programs that seek to mitigate income risks by pooling resources and spreading risks across time and classes.
These are designed in such a way that beneficiaries pay a premium over a given period of time to cover or protect them from possible loss of income and unemployment as a result of illness, injury, disability, retrenchment, harvest failure, maternity, and old age.
This component includes micro and area-based schemes to address vulnerability at the community level (such as micro-insurance and social support funds).
“With the partnership with PCIC, our farmer beneficiaries of Pantawid through the Self-Employment Assistance-Kaunlaran Association (SKA) under the Sustainable Livelihood Program can now avail of affordable insurance that will protect their crops and livestock’s from calamities, plant diseases and pest infestation,” said DSWD-7 Regional Director Mercedita Jabagat.
Jabagat noted those in the agricultural sector are always among the vulnerable victims of disasters where farmers and their families suffer the most.
And seeing this challenge, DSWD-7 has called on its Pantawid farmers to avail of the insurance packages offered by PCIC.
According to Indino, PCIC with its principal mandate to provide insurance protection to the country’s agricultural producers, shall conduct insurance trainings and orient the SKA on its policies and coverages, particularly the subsistence farmers under the MOA.
PCIC offers Insurance programs which include Rice Crop Insurance, Corn Crop Insurance, High-Value Commercial Crop Insurance, Non-Crop Agricultural Asset Insurance, Livestock Insurance, Term Insurance among others, added the Information Officer.
She bared that about 8,000 Pantawid farmers are targeted to benefit from the PCIC Crop Insurance Packages in the region where majority are coming from the provinces of Bohol and Negros Oriental. (rmn/jsme/PIA7-Cebu/DSWD7)