Crop Insurance Act pushed

Senator Cynthia Villar is calling on insurance companies to help small farmers recover from typhoons and other natural calamities by providing ample insurance coverage to the agricultural sector.

Villar, in a recent forum at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City, said farmers should be able to remain resilient even if they get hit by calamity.

“We want our farmers to get back within one week to the field to produce, support the country’s food security and not fall into a lingering loss of confidence and the poverty trap,” said Villar, who heads the Senate committee on food and agriculture.

“This target of speedy but transparent payout has been made possible through the adoption of the innovative index-based insurance technologies,” the senator stressed.

Villar said this is why she is pushing for the passage of Senate Bill 1759 or the Free Index-Based Crop Insurance Act into law, as the bill “seeks to further increase the access by our rice, corn and coconut farmers to safety nets against the effects of climate change by establishing the enabling policy, regulatory, and funding support for a more effective crop insurance program.”

“I believe that a new law will be better than just a policy issuance from the Insurance Commission,” she said.