Hoping for a better monsoon last year, Shivasharan Nidoni, a farmer from Bijjaragi village of the taluk, had not applied for insurance. “It was a big mistake which I will not repeat this year and I will also advise other farmers not to commit a similar mistake. I have applied for crop insurance this year,” he said. The prevailing drought and uncertainty of climate has prompted the farmers to apply for crop insurance in the district, which has crossed the set target. According to the officials of agriculture department, they have recorded 103 % registration for crop insurance. The total number of farmers who have applied for the scheme has already reached 1,16,887 for rabi season, mainly for crops such as jowar and bengal gram. The officials also said that the failure of rain for rabi has also forced the farmers to apply for insurance this year. The changes in crop insurance norms have also encouraged farmers to apply for insurance as the new norms promises higher value against the failure of crop. “The farmers could now get up to 90 % of money against the crop loss. This brings a good news for the farmers mainly of arid and drought prone areas such as Vijayapura,” said B. Manjunath, the Joint Director of Agriculture Department. He said that the department took up extensive awareness programme in rural area to educate the farmers on new crop insurance scheme. Mr. Manjunath said that the district administration and the Revenue Department are educating farmers. “We adopted several traditional methods such as street plays to spread the awareness on the insurance, which has helped the farmers to apply for the scheme,” he said. Source - http://www.thehindu.com