JV Ejercito files bill shielding farmers from impact of natural disasters
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito is now seeking the passage into law of a measure that would protect small farmers and their crops from the impact of natural disasters.
Ejercito filed Senate Bill No. 390 proposing to automatically place all planters with eight hectares of farmland and below under the government’s crop insurance program.
The measure particularly seeks to expand the national government’s current crop insurance program and improve the country’s food security.
“The pandemic and the natural disasters that hit the country not only affected consumption but more so the production of adequate food,” Ejercito said in a statement.
“The country’s vulnerability to disasters and its disastrous effect on agricultural productivity call for a more permanent and long term solution that will ensure that the agricultural sector, especially the small farmers, are protected and given support to sustain and protect their production,” he said.
“Needless to say, crop insurance is imperative for a country like the Philippines, where farmers are the poorest among the various sectors of the society,” he stressed.
Ejercito noted that the Philippines already witnessed two destructive tropical cyclones in the last quarter of 2022—Super Typhoon Karding and Severe Tropical Storm Paeng. Both have caused widespread devastation to the country’s agricultural sector.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) pegged the damage brought by ‘Karding’ across Luzon and some parts of the Visayas at P3.12-billion.
Meanwhile, the DA’s initial estimate of the agricultural damage caused by Severe Tropical Storm Paeng’s onslaught over the weekend has reached P49.54-million.
Once passed, Ejercito said the DA would be mandated to develop a comprehensive crop insurance scheme for small farmers in coordination with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) and in consultation with the Insurance Commission (IC).
For farmers owning or cultivating five hectares of farmland and below, their insurance premiums would be subsidized by the national government.
Under the bill, the national government will also cover half the insurance premiums of planters owning or cultivating more than five hectares but not exceeding eight hectares of farmland.
He also said all implementing agencies would also be required to create a database of small farmers and develop a processing and payment system for the new crop insurance program.
Ejercito noted that the government has provided subsidies to support the crop insurance program and has been shouldering shares of insurance premiums of insured farmers.
“However, this has not resulted to better outcomes in terms of alleviating the financial burden of farmers,” Ejercito said.
“The current crop insurance program is often characterized by a low penetration rate. Further, the coverage remains optional on the part of self-financed farmers and mandatory only on the part of farmers obtaining agricultural credit under a loan program,” he said.