Sweet lime growers in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, India, are struggling with erratic weather and unreliable crop insurance payouts. Farmers in Nagpur district, a key citrus area, report frequent crop losses under the government's Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS).

Launched in 2016 and extended until 2025-26 with an outlay of about US$8.35 billion, the RWBCIS was designed to protect against weather-related losses. However, farmers say claims are often rejected or delayed without explanation.

Guneshwar Bande, a farmer from Narasingi village, paid about US$60 in premiums in 2023, expecting to insure his 50-ton crop. After hailstorms reduced yields, his claim was rejected. "If a claim is rejected, we don't get a message, nor do we know why," he said.

Bande farms about 4 hectares of sweet lime after switching from oranges, which failed due to erratic rainfall and rising temperatures. Sweet lime uses 40–50% less water than oranges and is better suited to Vidarbha's semi-arid conditions. Maharashtra, India's second-largest producer after Andhra Pradesh, produced about 944,000 tons across 77,700 hectares in 2023-24.

Extreme heat, low rainfall, and irregular weather have increasingly disrupted citrus output. In 2019, drought destroyed 60% of Vidarbha's orange orchards, causing losses of around US$194 million. Temperatures now reach 48°C, and rainfall averages only 705 millimetres annually, well below India's national average.

Dr Sant Kumar of the Government Agriculture College in Chaurai said changing weather is disrupting flowering and raising pest pressure. "Now flowering happens in one season but not in the next," he said.

Participation in RWBCIS is declining. In 2018, over 115,000 farmers insured crops worth US$14.5 billion. By 2024, only 48,519 remained. In Nagpur, the number dropped from 2,387 to 753, and no claims were paid in 2024.

Farmers have called for faster, transparent processing. "When crops fail, a farmer has to spend immediately. If a 2022 claim is settled in 2025, it's useless," Bande said.

Vidarbha's citrus growers now face compounding challenges of heat stress, drought, and limited insurance protection, raising questions about the viability of sweet lime cultivation in the region.

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com