The Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC) is set to pilot a technology-driven insurance program aimed at expediting claims processing for rice farmers impacted by typhoons, starting with the 2025 wet cropping season. Leveraging satellite imagery, georeferenced farm data, and remote sensing technologies, the new system enables near-automatic claims verification and payout calculation within 3–5 days post-disaster, eliminating the need for traditional, time-intensive field inspections.
PCIC president Jovy Bernabe said the innovation introduces an “objective and rapid” system, automatically triggering payouts based on measurable weather events like wind velocity. The system, developed with support from the Philippine Space Agency and the Philippine Rice Research Institute, is designed to complement existing indemnity-based methods, offering a hybrid model that improves transparency, reduces delays, and enhances disaster response capacity.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. underscored its policy significance, saying the tech-driven system would help minimize farmer losses and accelerate recovery from extreme weather, supporting the government’s broader goals of food security and agricultural resilience.
The PCIC currently covers 47 percent of farmers nationwide and is pushing for an additional ₱1 billion in funding to extend coverage to up to 5 million farmers in 2025.
