State govt. begins exercise to implement crop insurance from next Kharif, to frame modalities

HYDERABAD

The State government is planning to introduce different crop insurance schemes by studying the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Joyana (PMFBY) and other crop insurance schemes by other States.

With a view to extend crop insurance scheme to almost all farmers raising various crops in the State, the State government held a preliminary meeting on Wednesday with officials of the Agriculture Department and others as part of fulfilling one promise made in the election manifesto of the Congress.

The meeting chaired by Minister for Agriculture Tummala Nageswara Rao was attended by Rythu Commission Chairman M. Kodanda Reddy, Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Reddy and others. The minister suggested that the authorities formulate guidelines to cover maximum risk based on the risk factors of Kharif and Rabi crops.

Officials explained to the minister that the State could be divided into 11 clusters based on the possibility of loss/risk and they put the normal extent during Kharif at about 130 lakh acres including paddy in 66.8 lakh acres, cotton 44.75 lakh acres, maize 5.23 lakh acres, red gram 5.21 lakh acres, soybean 3.8 lakh acres, chilli 1.9 lakh acres and others.

Similarly, the extent in Rabi is put at 78 lakh acres including paddy in 59 lakh acres, maize 9 lakh acres, groundnut 2.2 lakh acres, bengal gram 1.7 lakh acres and others. As per the PMFBY guidelines, the share premium to be borne by farmers would be 2% for Kharif crop, 1.5% for Rabi crops and 5% for horticultural crops and the rest would be borne by the State and Central governments in 50:50 ratio.

The minister hoped that the crop insurance schemes will be helpful to plug the farmers’ losses due to untimely rain, excess rain, deficient rain and hailstorm at least to some extent. He asked the officials to frame guidelines keeping in mind the farmers’ interests in case of yield-based insurance for paddy, maize, red gram, black gram, soybean, groundnut, bengal gram, sesamum and others and weather-based insurance for cotton, chilli, mango, oil palm, tomato, papaya, sweet lime and others.

The minister further asked the officials to examine the possibility of compensating total loss in case of hailstorm during the Rabi season for crops such as paddy, mango, chilli, papaya and others. He also wanted them to frame guidelines for estimating the loss with the help of technology so that insurance benefits could reach the farmers at the earliest.