Philippines: Change to law sought to make crop insurance mandatory
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Oct 2019
A lawmaker has filed the proposed Expanded Crop Insurance Act to make insurance mandatory for rice and other crops.
Existing laws require crop insurance only of farmers who take up production loans.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, who filed the bill to amend the current legislation, said, “Our rice farmers become more heavily indebted and impoverished after every disaster. A way to save them is for them to have crop insurance.”
Where farmers are financially unable to pay for the mandatory insurance, the National Food Authority (NFA) shall secure the cover for them, reported The Philippine Star. NFA shall pay for the insurance premium and become at least a 50% beneficiary.
Mr Pangilinan said farmers remain among the poorest in the country despite the size of the sector, generating 25% of the country’s jobs. Based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, farmers showed the highest poverty incidence in 2015 at 34.3%. A