India - Insurers told to add staff for crop cover

25.03.2019 417 views
The regulator IRDAI wants insurance companies to deploy adequate manpower in each cluster for effective implementation of crop insurance schemes. The authority has been receiving various complaints and suggestions on claims. In this light, it has made a set of suggestions, which includes deploying enough manpower to liaison with state governments and to create awareness about Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana at grass-root level. They should also support the bank branches, intermediaries and agents in uploading the details of insured farmers and beneficiaries with all requisite details on the National Crop lnsurance Portal on time. In each cluster these employees should observe the Crop Cutting Experiments and allied activities. Insurance companies also should designate an authorized person for each allocated cluster. This designated person should be senior level permanent employee of the company having sufficient decision making powers for smooth implementation of the crop insurance schemes.  Insurers must ensure proper representation in crop insurance meetings called for by relevant stakeholders. Senior level officials having the required decision making power should be deputed for such meetings. The companies should put in place a robust system to register all requests of individual loss assessment. Where a request for individual loss assessment is rejected, a written rejection letter mentioning the reason should be sent to insured. For all other cases, loss assessment survey should be done as per prescribed guidelines. IRDAI also wants the companies to conduct widespread awareness programmes for educating farmer on scheme guidelines, claim settlement process and grievance redressal process and all the details provided on the websites and through the call centres should be available in the vernacular language as well. Source - https://www.asianage.com
08.01.2026

Pakistan - Balochistan Agriculture Secretary inspects vegetable seed research farm

Balochistan Secretary of Agriculture, Noor Ahmed Parkani, inspected the Vegetable Seed Breeding Division on Mastung Road. 

08.01.2026

Vietnam pushes biopesticides to support green farming

Biological plant protection products have emerged as an important solution to gradually reduce dependence on chemical pesticides, support integrated pest management (IPM), and advance ecological and organic farming.

08.01.2026

Norwegian partners launch research project to help improve salmon resilience against sea lice

Norway's Benchmark Genetics has launched a new research and innovation project that aims to develop new, scalable genetic tools that would enable Atlantic salmon to better resist sea lice through selective breeding.

08.01.2026

Bangladesh expands banana planting across Rangpur region

Banana cultivation has continued to expand across the Rangpur agricultural region of Bangladesh, supported by stable and profitable prices since 2019.

08.01.2026

New Zealand - Canterbury hail losses drive spike in wheat insurance claims

A run of severe hailstorms over the Christmas–New Year period has caused significant damage to arable crops in Canterbury, leading to a sharp increase in claims under the wheat sector’s disaster relief insurance scheme and adding to scrutiny of weather-related risk exposure.

08.01.2026

India - IRDAI focuses on covering every citizen by 2047

Chief Secretary K Vijayanand has said the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is working with the goal of providing insurance cover to every citizen in the country by 2047.

07.01.2026

France halts imports of food with traces of banned pesticides

France on Wednesday officialised a ban on food imports containing traces of five pesticides currently banned in the EU, a move aimed at easing farmers' opposition to the Mercosur trade deal with four South American nations. 

07.01.2026

Australia - Roads cut off, more than 16,000 livestock lost as farmers 'lose everything’

Communities in northern Australia have had their roads cut off and face the grim task of counting livestock losses after some areas were hit with the worst flooding in decades.