The Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC)is a government owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) created by virtue of PD 1467 (June 11, 1978), later on amended by PD 1733 (October 21, 1980) and further amended by RA 8175 (December 29, 1995), as the implementing agency of the government’s agricultural insurance program.PCIC is an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture.The PCIC’s principal mandate is to provide insurance protection to farmers against losses arising from natural calamities, plant diseases and pest infestations of their palay and corn crops as well as other crops. The PCIC also provides protection against damage to/loss of non-crop agricultural assets including but not limited to machineries, equipment, transport facilities and other related infrastructures due to peril/s insured against. Philippines is vulnerable to natural disasters which cause devastation on crops and miseries to agricultural producers and lenders of agricultural credit. Because of the marginality of most landholdings, the result of these losses is devastating to the finances of the farmers.In 1976, an Interagency Committee for the Development of Crop Insurance undertook a nine-month full-blown feasibility study on the creation of a crop insurance program in the Philippines. It was concluded that the agricultural insurance system will address not only the welfare aspect of the after-loss event but also help in achieving the objective of stabilizing farm incomes and reverse the “risk-averse” nature of farmers and push them to invest more in new technologies that would help increase national productivity. Apart from protecting farmers from financial losses, crop insurance was also considered as an instrument that can be offered as “surrogate” collateral to banks and other financial institutions to influence and encourage them to continue participating and supporting government credit programs.It ushered in the creation of the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation and the operationalization of the insurance program through the issuance of a presidential decree (PD No. 1467 promulgated on 11 June 1978) which had then the force of law.
