Phl farmers still cannot afford agri insurance
Most Filipino farmers still cannot afford agriculture insurance as many of them still live below the official poverty line, state-run think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said.
In a study, PIDS consultants said this is most prevalent among coconut farmers in CALABARZON, which covers the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.
PIDS consultant Roselle Collado, who undertook the research with the Institute of Statistics of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, said farmers either do not have the money to afford the insurance premium or are not willing to avail of it because of the high cost.
“Among those who availed of partially subsidized insurance, 49 percent still said that they do not have enough money to pay the remaining premium,” she said.
High premium rate was also the top reason cited by seven in every 10 uninsured farmers.
Citing data from the 2015 Family Income and Expenditure Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that a typical Filipino farmer only earns an average of P100,000 per year, just below the poverty line of P108,800 in 2015.
“Indebtness to middlepersons and the financial loss due to climate events only pushed the farmers deeper into the debt hole,” said Collado.
She thus urged the government to offer more attractive packages to farmers to encourage them to be insured.
Collado proposed a multiperil insurance package which may cover damage to crops caused by biotic and abiotic stresses such as harmful insects and intense sunlight.
She also called for sustained efforts to educate farmers on the advantages of insurance programs.
PIDS president Cecilia Reyes urged the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) to improve the design of the agricultural insurance program (AIP) especially in terms of penetration rate and insurance cover to increase its benefits.
The targeting of beneficiaries for the free insurance premium should also be improved, she added.
As the PCIC cannot always provide full insurance premium subsidies, local government units must come up with alternative modes such as subsidies, she added.
PIDS research fellow Sonny Domingo also urged farmers to look into possible opportunities in high-value agricultural production especially in the livestock and poultry industries.
“In terms of projected returns, they are more than three times compared to traditional crops,” Domingo said.
The Philippines is currently tagged as one of the top 10 fastest-growing meatconsuming nations.
In 2017 alone, the gross value of production of livestock and poultry industries amounted to P 68.9 billion and P47.1 billion, respectively, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
When combined, these industries show a slightly increasing trend in terms of value of production compared to other subsectors, which show a slowly decreasing trend, Domingo said.