Weather-triggered microinsurance cover gets WB, ILO support

Microinsurance, which involves premium payments of as small as P400 per contract, has a “weather-indexed" variety that will soon spread to Butuan City and to Iloilo province with the support of international agencies. The World Bank will sponsor the program in Iloilo province while the International Labor Organization will back the implementation in Butuan, according to the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) and Microinsurance Innovations Program for Social Security. Butuan was chosen because it is frequently battered by storms, heavy rains and floods, and Iloilo because of unusually dry weather in recent years. In weather-indexed microinsurance, payments are triggered by the amount of rainfall or lack of it. MIPPS program manager Dr. Antonis Malagardis said the weather-index insurance is a variation of a current program for Leyte farmers. The farmers in the Leyte program get compensated for the difference between the potential yield or palay output and the actual harvest at the end of the crop season. If the actual palay output was less what was determined at the start of the planting season, farmers get cash payouts as soon as two weeks from the end of the crop season after verification by the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics, the PCIC explained. The PCIC said it resorted to the weather-indexed innovation in covering risk because the regular indemnity type of insurance is much more expensive and difficult to implement. The PCIC's P183- million budget for premiums is meant to cover 200,000 beneficiaries nationwide. — ELR/VS, GMA News