CHANDIGARH—Haryana Cotton growers those enrolled under both the crop insurance scheme ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ (PMFBY) and crop diversification scheme ‘Mera Pani – Meri Virasat’, need not worry about any increase in premium rates, as the State Government will bear 100 percent of the cost of insuring alternate crops. It was stated by the additional chief secretary, agriculture and farmers’ welfare department, Sanjeev Kaushal here on Monday.He further stated that following the revamp of the Central Government’s crop insurance scheme, farmers would have to pay two per cent of the sum insured for Kharif, 1.5 per cent of the sum insured for Rabi, and five per cent for cotton, which is a commercial and annual crop.
However, farmers who opt to cultivate alternate crops, including cotton, under the State’s crop diversification scheme would not have to pay any insurance premium on such crops. The State Government would also bear 100 percent of the premium share of maize crops in eight blocks of five districts.
Kaushal said that farmers in the State have received more money in claims than the premium paid collectively by them and the Central and State governments under PMFBY in the past three years. Farmers had received Rs. 2,097.93 crore in lieu of claims, as compared to Rs. 1,672.03 crore paid as premium between Kharif 2016 and Rabi 2018-19.
As many as 49,78,226 farmers in the State were covered under the scheme between Kharif 2016 and Kharif 2019. Total premium of Rs. 2,524.98 crore was paid during this period, of which farmers paid Rs. 812.31 crores, the State Government paid Rs. 996.01 crores and Central Government paid Rs. 716.66 crores. In comparison, the farmers received Rs. 2,662.44 crore as claims. Moreover, Haryana farmers have paid the least and claimed the most as compared to neighboring Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Allaying the fears of farmers, he said that the changes made to the crop insurance scheme earlier this year would prove to be beneficial to them, as the scheme has been made voluntary for farmers with crop loans as well. Apart from this, the contract period for insurers has been extended to three years from one year, and insurance for single peril has been allowed. This means that farmers can choose which risk factors they wish to insure their crops against, instead of paying for the more expensive multi-peril cover which included factors that might be a rarity in that particular region.
Giving details of measures taken by the Haryana Government for the implementation of PMFBY in the State, he said that the Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department had established a State Level Grievance Committee to sort out the pending grievances at fast track level. The Department has also provided one project officer and one surveyor in each district exclusively to handle the scheme-related work.
A centralized call center was established in the Directorate with a 22-seat call center (one for each district). The Department also created a Management Information System (MIS) for localized claim intimations and timely assessment and settlement of localized claims. In 2019-20, the target was set to enroll one lakh non-loanees, including 30,000 in each of the three clusters.
By YS.Rana: