The authorities concerned have notified 16 major crops cultivated in the district for crop insurance scheme and expect the number of farmers availing insurance cover against crop failure to rise significantly.

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana launched early this year is being implemented from the current kharif season and the authorities concerned are hopeful of a greater insurance penetration.

According to the statistics available from the Department of Agriculture, only 12,000 farmers had availed crop insurance cover in the district in 2013-14 and there were 4,000 cases of insurance claims resulting in the settlement of nearly Rs. 64 lakh. Joint Director of Agriculture Mahanteshappa said crop insurance is compulsory for farmers availing agricultural loan from banks and other registered financial institutions. But it was left to the decision of the individual farmers if they had not availed loan and hence the scheme had generated a lukewarm response so far.

Besides, many of the crops commonly cultivated in the district did not have insurance cover and hence a majority of the farmers were left out of the crop insurance scheme.

Advantages

But the new crop insurance scheme has many advantages and the notified area for computing the crop loss has been localised from the hobli level to Gram Panchayat level, Mr. Mahanteshappa said. In addition, the premium was low while there was also insurance cover for post-harvest loss which was not the case earlier, he added. In the earlier scheme, at least 50 per cent of the crop should have failed in a notified area for qualifying for insurance cover. Under the revised norms, it has been reduced to 33 per cent, which is another added attraction besides the low premium, according to the official.

Notified crops

For Mysuru district paddy, maize, ragi, cotton and pulses are among those listed as notified crops and they cover almost the entire spectrum of crops cultivated in the region.

However, sugarcane and tobacco — which together is cultivated on 87,000 hectares of land — has been left out of the insurance cover.

But cotton, which is cultivated on nearly 50,000 hectares of land, has been brought under crop insurance scheme this year and it will help in greater penetration of the insurance cover.

Besides, there are certain horticultural crops too that have been notified under the new crop insurance scheme.

Source - thehindu.com