The Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) has sealed a strategic partnership with the Davao del Norte (DDN) Provincial Government that provides continuing insurance protection benefits to the latter’s constituent farmers and allied agricultural workers.
PCIC President Jovy C. Bernabe and DDN Governor Rodolfo P. del Rosario recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) which initially puts some 2,000 hectares of rice lands in one of the country’s top agricultural province under a crop insurance protection regime.
The MOA signing was done as part of the 3rd Annual General Assembly and Congress of the Davao del Norte District 1 and District 2 Federation of Irrigators Association held on Feb. 19, 2013 in Tagum City.
The occasion also became the venue to showcase the benefits of crop insurance when the PCIC issued checks worth some P4.37 Million to six irrigators associations and cooperatives in the province. The amount represented indemnity payments for losses incurred by farmers due to floods and occurrence of pest and diseases.
Under the MOA, additional rice and non-rice areas devoted to other PCIC-insurable crops will be insured under the same agreement in the future. Davao del Norte counts over 15,200 hectares of rice lands during the wet and dry seasons. Its farm constituents are also engaged in livestock and fisheries.
The MOA likewise supports the development thrusts of the PCIC and the DDN local government units. It provides that PCIC shall accredit DDN’s provincial government as PCIC’s partner, conduct trainings on agricultural insurance underwriting and claims adjustments to DDN’s agricultural officers and technicians at the provincial, city and municipal levels, and assist DDN in information dissemination campaign for the program.
It also provides that DDN shall allocate funds for the cost of insurance premium and provide technical assistance and training to city and municipal agricultural officers and technicians. For their part, the city and municipal LGUs shall provide training and technical assistance to farmer cooperators and farmers.
The DDN has allocated an initial amount of P1.34 Million as its premium contribution for some 2000 hectares of rice lands during the current dry-season farming that ends in April.
PCIC’s insurance payouts in the province last year benefitted 771 farmers cultivating some 1,800 hectares. The checks were received by the farmer organizations representing them, as follows: DITCIA 1 IA, which received P369,818; Durian Dacudao IA, P229,900; MABADIA, P184,486; SIFIA, P658,521; DUFFAMCO, P1,068.556; and San Vicente Multi-Purpose Cooperative, P1,856,776.
The MOA signing ceremony was witnessed by Rep. Anthony G. del Rosario (District 1), PCIC Board Members Alex de Guzman, Epifanio A. Maniebo and Dioscoro A. Granada, and PCIC XI Officer-in-Charge Bonifacio V. Pales. Other witnesses were DDN Asst. Prov’l Agriculturist Anastacia Notarte and National Irrigation Administration Regional Manager Modesto Membreve.