Did you know that only around 12 per cent of farmers are covered under the crop insurance scheme in Karnataka despite the State witnessing huge crop losses owing to vagaries of the monsoon almost every year? What is more shocking is that this low level of coverage is said to be one of the best in the country.
Expresses concern
Expressing concern over this, the Karnataka Agriculture Price Commission (KAPC) has now embarked upon an initiative to increase the reach and effectiveness of the crop insurance scheme to ensure sustainable livelihood for farmers.
The KAPC on Tuesday constituted a State-level committee to suggest ways and means of popularising the crop insurance scheme among farmers.
One month’s time
Announcing this at a meeting of stakeholders, including officials, representatives of the State-Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), scientists from agricultural universities and farmers, KAPC Chairman T.N. Prakash Kammaradi said the committee had been given a month’s time to come out with its recommendations.
While farmers have to enrol for the insurance scheme every season, statistics indicated that an average of around 12 per cent of farmers had been covered under the scheme, he said.
Another expert committee was formed to analyse various studies on the implementation of the crop insurance scheme and suggest methods to simplify and strengthen it.
He also announced that he would write letters to Vice-Chancellors of all universities in agriculture and allied sectors to set up Kannada portals exclusively for the crop insurance scheme.
Meanwhile, the statistics provided by officials on the settlement of claims for kharif season of 2013 indicated that farmers had got an average of only Rs. 2,000 per head as compensation.
While the farmers demanded modification of the “design” of the insurance scheme, Mr. Kammaradi said that such a demand would be considered as a long-term measure as any revision of the scheme had to be done by the Centre.
