The government, in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and allied organizations, has launched a pilot project for satellite-based crop insurance and agro-advisory services aimed at strengthening climate resilience in the agriculture sector.
Under a memorandum of agreement signed Monday, IRRI, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and several Philippine agencies—including the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC), Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice), and PAGASA—will initially pilot the project among 1,000 farmers in Camarines Sur and Isabela.
The project’s centerpiece is an Area-Based Yield Index (ARBY) insurance system that uses historical yield data from the Philippine Rice Information System to offer coverage without requiring on-site damage assessments. The tool targets a broad range of risks—floods, droughts, pests, diseases, and saltwater intrusion—and will be integrated with weather-based, field-level agro-advisory services to assist farmers in managing risk more effectively.
Policy Implications:
The program reflects a major policy shift toward digitally-driven, data-informed agricultural risk management, addressing long-standing limitations of traditional crop insurance such as slow claims processing and limited coverage. If successful, it may serve as the basis for national scale-up, aligning with the Department of Agriculture’s goals to fortify the rice system against climate volatility.
“Traditional crop insurance has not always fully addressed farmers’ needs,” IRRI noted, underscoring the urgency as climate-induced losses reached ₱57.8 billion in 2024 alone.
PCIC President Jovy Bernabe has also signaled plans to request an additional ₱1 billion budget for 2026, aiming to expand insurance coverage to nearly 5 million farmers, or more than 55% of the country’s farming population, from the current 47%.
The pilot represents a coordinated effort to modernize agricultural policy instruments and enhance the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers in one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
