With the government declaring six taluks of the district drought-hit, Deputy Commissioner P. Meghannavar has urged the farmers to apply for crop insurance scheme under the Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana. Speaking after inaugurating a seminar on the new scheme here on Monday, he said that the farmers should make use of the scheme to get higher compensation, mainly when the district was facing drought. “The insurance scheme primarily helps the farmers during natural calamities. Therefore, the district which is already reeling under drought, the loss could be recovered to a considerable extent if the farmers apply for the scheme,” he said. He directed revenue officials to hold extensive awareness programmes in all the 198 gram panchayats of the district to bring more farmers under the cover. He said that the officials must hold the meeting like a gram sabha where farmers should be encouraged to participate in large numbers. During the meeting, the farmers should be told how to fill up the form and complete other formalities. Mr. Meghannavar said that already of the targeted 2 lakh hectares, sowing was completed on 1.87 lakh hectares, and said that since it was feared that a significant part of the crop may wither away, it was strongly recommended to the farmers to apply for insurance. He said that for rabi crop, the last date for paying premium was December 31 and for kharif, the date was February 28, 2017. He said that since a limited time left for Rabi season, the officials should not waste time and get on to work to ensure most of the farmers apply for the scheme. He however informed that those who have obtained crop loan, the insurance was mandatory for them. Mr. Meghannavar said that those officials who get at least 500 farmers cover under the scheme in a gram panchayat, would be felicitated in the Republic Day programme. ZP, CEO Vikas Suralkar, JD Agriculture, Ramesh Kumar and other revenue officials were present. Source - http://www.thehindu.com