It's not just rain which is playing truant and adding to farmers' woes. Technology too has let them down at a time when the state wants to boast of its tech-sawy status. Lakhs of farmers in Karnataka have missed out on crop insurance in the current kharif season. While the elusive rain has thrown their cultivation schedules and crop plans into disarray, a shortcoming in the government's portal, Samrakshana, has posed another hurdle to ryots - the website lacks a provision for cultivators to directly upload documents and pay insurance premium. As a result, state farmers are forced to depend on common service centres (CSC) where agents upload documents and make payments on their behalf. However, many failed to apply for crop insurance this time due to the last-minute rush at CSCs. Also, they couldn't decide which crop to choose, thanks to the elusive rain. Farmers are required to upload documents and pay premium online on or before the cut-off dates, which vary with the crops, in order to avail the benefits of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Transactions can be done on two portals: Samrakshana and another one run by the Centre. Though the Centre's website has the option to apply directly, Karnataka farmers can't use it as the state has its own portal and a dedicated server. Bharath Anjanappa, a farmer from Chikkere Halli of Molakalmuru taluk, Chitradurga district, wanted to sow groundnut, and the deadline for insurance was July 31. He waited for rain till the last day but to no avail. Anjanappa approached the Chitradruga CSC just before the cut-off date expired but couldn't submit his application in time as there was a long queue. As the deadline for groundnut had expired, he was forced to apply for insurance for ragi whose cut-off date is August 15. Anjanappa now has to sow ragi though he had no plian to do so. "The hitch, however, is that ragi needs more water than groundnut, and given the weather conditions, I don't hope for better rain," said Anjanappa who owns five acres of land. He added: "I approached the authorities with a request to change the crop but they rejected my plea citing rules." "Technology is not helping farmers when they need it the most," said Kavitha Kuruganti, convener of National Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture "While many have missed out on crop insurance, agriculture will see a serious crisis if the government fails to take timely measures to rectify the technological shortcoming," she added. Kavitha also pointed to another shortcoming in the crop insurance system: lack of direct interaction between farmers and insurance companies. "These systems, while they appear to be helpful, are actually allowing insurance companies to stay behind a curtain of obscurity. While in other insurance sectors, agents reach out to clients, why are crop insurance companies not investing on direct outreach to farmers but hiding behind banks and online portals? This does not help accountability," she said. Admitting to the loophole in the state government's portal, officials in the agriculture department said the solution is to provide an option for individual farmers to directly upload documents and link the state portal with that of the Centre. "lt has beena learning curve for us and efforts are on to stabilise our portal. With our engineers working on it, we hope the website would be enabled to upload documents directly in a year from now," said agriculture director BY Srinivas. Hit by a long dry spell and technical issues, farmers are now demanding that the government extend the cut-off dates to apply for crop insurance. "We have appealed to the agriculture department to allow farmers to think about the crop option depending on the weather condition and then apply for insurance," said GC Bayya Reddy, president, Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha. Agriculture director BY Srinivas said the government has already written to the Centre seeking extension of cut-dates and response is awaited. Source - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com