CS for bringing more farmers under crop insurance umbrella

Surjit Kumar Dhal,Bhubaneswar, May 19: Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Saturday directed the officials to bring more farmers under the protective ambit of crop insurance in the backdrop of frequent calamities and other vagaries of nature.

“It is imperative Co bring more and more farmers under the protective umbrella of crop insurance,” Padhi said presiding over State Level Coordination Meeting on crop Insurance here.

Principal Secretary Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment Saurav Garg outlined the issues for discussion.

Padhi who reviewed the insurance performances of last year directed the officials to enroll more and more farmers under crop insurance through intensive awareness activities.

He also emphasized on brining more non-loanee farmers under the crop insurance fold.

It was revealed at the meeting that during last kharif season around 15 lakh farmers were registered under crop insurance with a total premium of Rs 1102 crore.

A target was set to insure at least 22 lakh farmers during the coming kharif season.

With this target, the total premium to be paid by State Government is estimated to be around Rs 1380 crore, said officials.

Notably, around 98% of the total premium is borne by both the State and Central Government on 50:50 sharing basis. Around two per cent is paid by the farmer.

On the directions of Padhi, a comparative calculation of the premium paid and claim payouts given by insurance companies to the farmers was made.

It was seen that in the year 2017, an amount of Rs 940 crore was paid to the insurance company towards the premium for khariff crop against which the toal claim payout to the farmers was Rs 1726 crore.

During the Rabi season in 2017, the total premium paid was 19.14 crore against the claim payout was Rs 43 crore.

In the year 2018, a total amount of 1102 crore has been paid to the companies towards the premium.