Tamil Nadu crop insurance claims during drought lauded

CHENNAI: Despite cries of delay in disbursal of succour, Tamil Nadu has received a pat on the back from the Centre for maximum crop insurance claims that are aimed at bailing out farmers badly hit by one of the worst droughts in the State.

Under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), a total of 15.37 lakh farmers, with an acreage of 31.85 lakh acres, were covered for insurance during Paddy-II period, stretching from August-September, 2016 to January, 2017.

This period is locally known as kar/kuruvai/sornavari, according to a top official of the Agriculture department. The insurance companies have sanctioned a total of `2,263 crore, of which `1,802 crore had been released so far and subsequently `1,730 crore was credited into the respective bank accounts of the claimant rice producers across the State.

The performance of Tamil Nadu Agriculture department came in for special mention at the Rabi conference held in New Delhi recently. “The Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh made a special mention about the achievement of our department on the disbursal of crop insurance at the Rabi conference held at New Delhi last month. He admired the department for maximum insurance claims on crop under the PMFBY,” an official told Express.

He added that Tamil Nadu stood first in maximum claims of crop insurance and hoped to disburse rest of the claim sum in a short period. The State stood first in enrolment of non-loanee farmers, 12.04 lakh, under PMFBY. The main factors that helped achieve the feat were setting up of one-stop information centres and help desks at the block level, creating awareness through multi-disciplinary participation, better coordination with insurance firms and weekly coordination meetings of top government officials to monitor the progress of the scheme from enrolment for disbursal.

Since Tamil Nadu was reeling under severe drought and acute water shortage triggered by truant monsoons failing to bring adequate rain, the State government tried to bail out farmers by expanding insurance coverage and special packages. However, several farmers’ organisations blamed the government of failing to provide the succour to all affected ryots and expand the coverage of insurance. The claims of insured crops other than paddy, which included millets, oilseeds and pulses, are expected to be settled in a few months as the cultivation details are yet to be collated.

Another senior official of the agriculture department said the harvest of these crops was completed during June-July this year and the details are being compiled. “We are yet to collect the crop yield details based on the crop cutting experiment. Once the paper work is completed, the process for getting the claims sanctioned will be initiated,” he said. For the current year, farmers can insure paddy (Samba/Thaladi/Pishanam) till November 30 under the PMFBY which is implemented to protect the farmers from production risks, ensure food security, encourage crop diversification, besides enhancing growth and competitiveness of agriculture sector.