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Centre calls Chief Ministers to discuss crop insurance

NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to call a meeting of Chief Ministers to discuss the issue of providing crop insurance for farmers dealing in tea, coffee, rubber, tobacco and spices. The Centre wants State governments to share some part of the insurance premium for farmers benefiting from the scheme.

The issue came up at the meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the scheme on Wednesday where Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who also heads the GoM, and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram wanted the State governments also to share some amount of the premium.

According to the original proposal, insurance premium is to be equally shared by the Centre and the crop growers. However, Mr. Pawar and Mr. Chidambaram said the State governments should share at least 25 per cent of the Centre’s premium share, and thus get involved in the successful implementation of the scheme. Consequently, the GoM decided to call a meeting of Chief Ministers on December 10 to discuss the issue and take their views on it.

Giving details about the scheme, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, who is a special invitee in the GoM, the proposed crop insurance scheme would provide an effective risk management aid to the growers of tea, coffee, rubber and spices that include ginger, turmeric, chilli, pepper and cardamom who are likely to be affected by adverse weather and exposure of pests and diseases.

Mr. Ramesh said that while the Centre will partially pay from the interest earnings of the Price Stabilisation Fund Trust formed to save farmers from price volatility, about Rs.500 crore was required as budgetary support from the government for successful implementation of the scheme.

The scheme will not only improve farm yields of these crops but also help in earning foreign exchange as a large chunk of all these products are exported.

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