Crops like banana, pomegranate, grapes, mangoes etc are insured by farmers against extreme weather events like untimely rains, extreme temperature, high wind velocity etc. A total of 6,011 farmers who had insured their horticulture crops were found ineligible after an extensive ground truthing exercise found serious discrepancies in the data filled by them. This comes after the central government ordered ground truthing of all crops insured in the rabi season after a major scam was unearthed in the implementation of the scheme in the state.
Horticulture crops are insured under the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS). Under this scheme, farmers pay 5 per cent of the insurance premium while the state and the central government pays the rest in equal shares.
Crops like banana, pomegranate, grapes, mangoes etc are insured by farmers against extreme weather events like untimely rains, extreme temperature, high wind velocity etc.
The Maharashtra agriculture department had stumbled upon a major scam where charlatans had insured crops which existed only on papers. The Indian Express had reported how this was done by using fake lease deeds, with the original land owner not even being aware of such deeds. Following this, the central government had instructed the state government to conduct ground truthing or a verification of the crops insured for the rabi season.
The survey, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, showed that Jalna has reported the highest number of such farmers, 2,174, with 1,769 farmers having insured their pomegranate crops which later was found to be non-existent. Solapur had seen 1,995 such farmers for the same crop. The survey showed that such cases have been reported from almost all districts in the state which grow horticulture crops. A total area of 58.82 hectare of land was insured and a total premium of Rs 29.21 crore was paid.
The central government, in its directive, had asked the agriculture insurance companies, which extend their cover, to take steps to ensure such cases of fraud do not happen. The exercise was carried out by officials of the agriculture department as well as the insurance companies. While no action is being mulled against farmers who had indulged in such fraudulent activities, the state agriculture department is taking steps to ensure the leakages are plugged in the scheme.
Since 2016, the state reported payment of insurance premium of Rs 5,521 crore under the scheme, of which, the share of farmers has been Rs 992 crore. Farmers have received compensation worth Rs 4,781 crore.