The city government of Batac in Ilocos Norte province is encouraging livestock raisers who are under the Registry System for Basic Sector in Agriculture (RSBSA) to avail of the livestock insurance program of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC).
"Insurance for cattle, carabaos, horses, and goats or sheep now available through the City Veterinary Office of the City Government of Batac,” said City Mayor Albert Chua in a social media post on Wednesday.
This insurance is free and exclusive for raisers registered with the RSBSA.
The PCIC said more farmers are now availing of the government insurance program to protect their source of livelihood in times of calamities as some farmers receive an average of PHP25,000 to PHP35,000 from the PCIC.
A livestock raiser can insure for a year a maximum of 10 heads for cattle, carabao, or horse aged 7 months to 17 years and 25 heads for goats or sheep aged 4 months up to 7 years.
Other local government units in the province are also paying for the premium crop insurance coverage of their farmers but only a few farmers are availing it.
Provincial Board Member Jonathan Torralba, committee chairperson of the committee on agriculture advised farmers on Wednesday to visit their respective municipal agriculture offices after the planting season and fill out some forms to avail of the free crop insurance coverage.
In previous years, affected farmers who were able to insure their crops were able to recover at least 50-60 percent from their agriculture losses due to natural calamities.
“The only way to protect their crops from calamities is to insure them. It is better this way than to have nothing,” Torralba said following reports from tobacco farmers that some of their newly-planted tobacco were damaged due to the early onset of rainfall this month.
In 2024, PCIC downloaded PHP4.5 billion funds for insurance coverage of registered farmers and fishers. Of this amount, Region 1 has an allocation of PHP300 million insurance coverage.
Source - https://www.pna.gov.ph
