DAVAO City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte has called for “sweeping” reforms in the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC) to make the agency financially sustainable and more responsive to the needs of small subsistence farmers, in line with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. plans for the agriculture sector.

Duterte pledged to work with his colleagues in the incoming 19th Congress to pass measures that would help fulfill President Marcos Jr.’s priority programs for agriculture, which include utilizing new technologies to modernize the sector, rebuilding its value chain, and increasing food production.

Providing adequate and well-targeted crop insurance coverage for small farmers is “crucial” in fulfilling these priorities by the President for the agriculture sector, Duterte said.

“We laud President BBM’s decision to temporarily head the Department of Agriculture (DA) and his recent pronouncement during his inaugural address on the urgent attention needed to make the agriculture sector more responsive to the needs of our people. With the President taking on the agriculture portfolio, siguradong mababawasan ang red tape at mas maraming resources at pondo ang maibubuhos para maipatupad ang mga priority programs ng Department of Agriculture,” Duterte said.

“But equally important, as President BBM had correctly pointed out, is the need to restructure the DA. This should also include other agencies related to food production and safeguarding the welfare of our farmers,” he added.

Duterte said one agency that is “no longer” attached to the DA but is vital in achieving the President’s plans for the agriculture sector is the PCIC; a government-run corporation tasked to provide crop insurance coverage.

The supervision over the PCIC has been transferred to the Department of Finance (DOF) by former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for better management of its financial resources.

The DA Secretary remains as vice-chairperson of the PCIC board.

Duterte said the inadequacies of the PCIC in providing financial protection for small farmers were uncovered during the previous administration and validated by a recent World Bank study.

“Kung kulang o walang insurance, kawawa ang mga maliliit nating magsasaka at iba pang nagtatrabaho sa agri sector kapag na-wipe out ang ani nila dahil sa bagyo, peste at iba pang kalamidad.

Our farmers, especially the small tillers, need better crop insurance coverage than the one they are currently getting or not getting at all from PCIC,” Duterte said.

Duterte said improving the services provided by the PCIC could also be a way for the government to introduce new, smart, and climate-resilient technologies to farmers and other agriculture stakeholders to boost their productivity.

This, in turn, will help fulfill President Marcos Jr.’s goal of increasing food production.

“The PCIC can work with private firms in encouraging farmers and other workers in the agri sector to use new technologies to help reduce their financial losses,” Duterte said.

A World Bank study submitted last month to the PCIC Board found that the agency’s current practices in providing crop insurance “do not provide adequate protection to farmers.”

The study done by a team from the World Bank’s Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Program (DRFIP) revealed that while premium subsidies provided by the government to the PCIC has consistently increased over the years, crop insurance has only reached one-third of the country’s farmers and is not well-targeted to ensure that taxpayers are getting value for their money.

PCIC’s capital is also not efficiently invested, and its insurance products are also not suitable for the majority of Filipino farmers, especially for small subsistence holders and growers, the study also showed.