Daunting task lies ahead for Agriculture department officials implementing the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), a crop insurance scheme started this fiscal, as farmers in the district have not shown any interest for insurance in earlier years due to specific reasons.

Of the 1,38,393 farmers enumerated in the district, only much less than 5,000 persons have joined the PMFBY in the district till now. As per the guidelines of the Centre, the farmers, who opt for crop loans from banks and cooperative credit societies, should be brought under the insurance coverage. Whereas, the scheme is optional for the ‘non-loanee’ farmers, who were the majority in the district.

Farmers have reasons not to opt for the previous insurance schemes. “The settlement procedures were not attractive in those schemes.”

“Even if the damages were accepted, either the farmers have to wait for years to get the amount or get their claims rejected on trivial technical reasons, both of which acted as deterrent factors,” pointed out S. R. Madhusoothanan, a progressive farmer and district secretary of All India Kissan Sabha.

However, Joint Director of Agriculture S. Renganathan sounded optimistic that large number of farmers could be attracted to the scheme as it had some added additional advantages vis-à-vis previous schemes. “Crop damages in this scheme are not going to be assessed at ‘firka’ level rather at ‘revenue village’ level itself. Moreover, the settlement period has been pegged at 60 days and insurance coverage will be given not only for crop destruction but also for disrupted sowing due to adverse conditions,” he said.

Source - http://www.thehindu.com