As the kharif crop season has come to a close, chilli and cotton farmers are a worried lot that only 20 to 30% of them who have borrowed loans under the Centrally sponsored Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bheema Yojana will be eligible for settlement of insurance claims for crop damage.
The eligible claims for paddy and all other crops was higher at 50%. The reason for smaller coverage for chilli and cotton was due to cut off date for deduction of premium from loans disbursed being fixed at as early as July 9 and 15 respectively, while it was August 31 for all other crops, sources said.
The Yojana envisaged that all the farmers who were sanctioned loans before the cut off dates will be mandatorily tagged for deduction of premium and they will alone enjoy insurance claims as it was an insurance linked loaning scheme.
Excluded
Those who got loans after the dates will not be covered by the policies. The Telangana government had fixed an ambitious target of disbursing ₹ 23,851 crore to farmers who number about 55 lakh in the State. But, only ₹ 21,733 crore was disbursed till the end of kharif season. The balance ₹ 2,000 crore could not be met and as a result the farmers went for private lending at 5 to 10 % interest rate, sources added.
Agriculture Secretary C. Parthasarathi said there was no sanctity to the target because the requirement of farmers fluctuated on yearly basis. He expressed helplessness that insurance claims can be settled only for a small percentage of farmers.
Premium remitted
This owed to insurance principles to cover larger risk period in the season. The risk period will be less if the dates were extended and of no use to farmers. Therefore, early dates were finalised for loaning to be completed and premium remitted to insurance companies. However, the farmers did not approach banks for loans early in the season because of adverse seasonal conditions initially.
At ₹ 8,603 crore, the State Bank of India was at the top among the 38 lending institutions. The lending by all commercial banks was ₹ 13,830 crore, cooperative banks ₹ 2,526 crore and regional rural banks ₹ 5,376 crore.
