Having faced criticism from political parties in Haryana, the much-touted farm insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana(PMFBY) has run into fresh trouble in the state. Now, agriculture officers have accused the state government of "unnecessarily pressuring" them to meet targets related to the scheme, saying that it was impossible for them to achieve those.
ADOs, working in the state agriculture and farmers welfare department, have been assigned crop-cutting experiments (CCEs) under the scheme. Though, initially, a private firm was to be assigned the job, the contract between the state government and the firm did not take shape. CCE is to be used for assessing the insurance amount for farmers in each village. The ADO Association Haryana met in Hisar on Saturday to discuss the problem. According to the association, the state government has directed ADOs to complete the process of collecting CCE data immediately. "However, the process can't be carried out right now, as some farmers have already started to harvest their crops," said association president Sushil Goyat.
The ADOs said they were already engaged in collecting samples for Prime Minister's soil health card scheme, so forcing them to complete CCE quickly was not possible and would have chances of fabrication of reports. The ADOs claimed that the state government had threatened to charge-sheet them if CCEs were not completed in time.
Goyat said the insurance amount under PMFBY was determined on the basis of the average crop production of the village assessed through crop-cutting experiment. The same process was to be carried by some private companies at the rate of Rs 547 per experiment. He said the agreement between the state government and companies could not be finalized on account of some disagreements. "We were assigned this job after that," he said.
Goyat said paddy, cotton, bajra and maize crops were identified for CCE in this season. "So, four crop cutting experiments have to carried out in each village. Bajra has already arrived in the markets, and harvesting of early varieties of paddy and cotton has started. At this stage, it is not appropriate to carry out CCE, as the selection of fields and planning for such experiments had to be carried out at least 15 days prior to the start of harvest season," he said.
Goyat said crop cutting experiments were a technical process and they also required the assistance of revenue officials for carrying them out. "A hurried exercise would ultimately lead to an illegitimate process. It would also be against the farmers' interest, as insurance companies might deny insurance to them in future on the grounds of not following CCE in accordance with guidelines," Goyat said.
Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
