A workshop to create awareness about Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was organised in the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Bidar on Tuesday. Resource persons spoke to farmers and explained the salient features of the scheme and how it was different from the old insurance schemes. They said that the scheme was mandatory for farmers who took farm loans, while others can make use of it voluntarily.
Lok Sabha member Bhagwant Khuba inaugurated the event and urged farmers to benefit from the scheme. All the earlier schemes have reached only one-fifth of the farmers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants each farmer to be covered in this scheme, the MP said.
He said that the benefits included uniform premium of 2 per cent for Kharif crops, 1.5 per cent for Rabi crops, and five per cent for horticulture, cash or annual crops. The rest of the premium will be paid by the Union government, even if it is beyond 90 per cent.
Those who take Kisan Credit Cards are automatically covered as their contributions are deducted while releasing the loans, while other farmers will have to buy insurance by paying premium amounts separately.
He said that this would provide the much needed security to farmers who were suffering from rising prices of inputs such as seeds and fertilizers and unstable prices of farm produce.
Crop cutting experiments were earlier held at taluk or hobli levels. Now that will be done at village or gram panchayat levels. Technology will be extensively used to assess crop damage. Remote sensing will be used to give accurate estimates, the MP said.
He found fault with the earlier UPA Government for restricting the amount of premium to be paid by the government, that had allegedly resulted in lower compensation amounts. This cap is removed now and farmers will be fully compensated for their losses, he said. The MP listed the pro-farmer measures taken by the NDA Government and said they were better than schemes of the earlier regimes.
Objection
However, Veerabhushan Nandagave, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader, objected to the leader’s speech and said that benefits of the schemes were not reaching the intended beneficiaries. He countered the MP’s claim that the MUDRA bank scheme had benefited over 10,000 persons in Bidar district alone, by saying that bankers were not entertaining applications by several deserving youth.
The MP said the scheme was one of the most successful schemes of the government and the criticism was not valid.
Ravi Deshmukh, KVK training coordinator, K. Ziaulla, Joint Director of Agriculture, Vishwanath Patil Koutha, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha president, and others were present.
University of Agricultural Science, Raichur, Department of Agriculture and Reliance Foundation had jointly organised the workshop.
