The State Administrative Council (SAC) which met here today under the chairmanship of Governor NN Vohra gave its nod to the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna. The scheme would be rolled out from the 2016 kharif season. The implementation of the scheme would be a landmark towards securing crops of farmers and growers against natural calamities, pests and diseases and would cover all major risks to crops. It would provide major relief to the farming community against losses suffered by them on account of unfavorable and fluctuating weather and climatic conditions, including rain, hailstorm, storm, flood, inundation, landslide, drought, dry spells, pests and disease. The farmer would have to pay a uniform premium of only 2 per cent for all kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all rabi crop. In case of annual horticulture and commercial crops, the farmer would have to pay a premium of 5 per cent. The remaining part of the premium subsidy would be borne by the Centre and the state on a 50:50 basis. The state government would be implementing the scheme in a phased manner. To begin with, 10 per cent area would be covered during 2016-17. This scheme was compulsory for loanee KCC farmers and optional for others, but was envisaged to cover all farmers in a phased manner within two and three years, depending upon the response.Backed by the setting up of automatic weather stations and carrying out crop-cutting experiments on a scientific basis, the scheme promises to provide prompt and easy settlement of claims through the use of technology like GPS, remote sensing and drones to assess actual crop damage and losses. The scheme would operate on the principle of ‘area approach’ in the selected defined areas called insurance unit. A high-level committee of the state government would notify crops and defined areas to be covered during the season as per operational guidelines. The Agricultural Production Department was asked to work out necessary details immediately for implementation of the scheme with effect from 2016-17 kharif crop and notify the schedule accordingly. It was decided that adequate publicity be given to the scheme through radio, electronic and print media. To acquaint farmers with benefits accruing from the scheme, various institutional mechanisms were being put in place. Source - tribuneindia.com