State-owned Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) managed to insure in 2020 some 3.09 million farmers and fishermen amid natural calamities and plants and animal infections that caused widespread risk to the agriculture industry.

Based on the data from the PCIC, the insured persons include 1.28 million rice farmers, 426,000 corn farmers, 285,000 high-value crop farmers, 370,000 livestock and poultry farmers, and 47,000 fisherfolk.

PCIC President Jovy Bernabe said other farmers and fishers numbering over 4,000 took out insurance for non-crop assets used to support farming and fishing while nearly 679,000 took out credit and life term insurance.

Reports from the PCIC showed that around 76 percent of the total insured in 2020 were already provided free insurance through the Agricultural Insurance for Farmers and Fisherfolk under the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA).

This insurance program, Bernabe said, is PCIC's largest program with a P3.5-billion allocation in the 2020 General Appropriations Act intended as government premium subsidy.

"Farmers and fisherfolk listed in the RSBSA who are actively engaged in production may avail themselves of insurance coverage – free of charge, for their standing crops, poultry and livestock, and non-crop assets used in their farming and fishing operations," he said.

The insurance provided in 2020 covered about 1.4 million hectares of rice farms, nearly 476 thousand hectares of corn farms, about 320 thousand hectares planted to high-value crops, and 1.3 million heads of poultry and livestock.

The state-run insurance agency was able to pay over P3.5 billion worth of insurance to more than 590,000 farmers and fishers across the country in 2020.

These indemnity payments, Bernabe mentioned, were for losses due to typhoons, wind and flooding, pests and plant diseases, livestock deaths, farmer and fisherfolk accidents and deaths, as well as damage claims for the Taal Volcano eruption last year.

According to Bernabe, the agency approved around 87 percent of the total claims filed in 2020, while the remaining applications either lack complete requirements and documentation or are currently being reviewed.

Bernabe said the PCIC has set a 20-day period for adjustment, validation, and processing of claims, adding that the agency recognized the clients' immediate need for relief over complete loss or partial destruction of crops and animals.

The PCIC, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, was created to lower the risks to investments of agricultural producers.