After the more than one lakh paddy cultivating farmers became crestfallen, losing their crops following failure of north east monsoon, the district administration has brought some cheers to the Chilli growing farmers, allowing them to insure their crops in this season.
Farmers who had taken up chilli cultivation in about 15,000 hectares were keeping their fingers crossed following the failure of the monsoon when the district administration announced on Thursday that they could insure their crops on the lines of their paddy cultivating counterparts.
After finding that the chilli growing farmers faced difficulties in insuring their crop, Collector S. Natarajan took up the issue with the authorities, after which, the State government and the Agriculture Insurance Company of India gave consent to provide insurance cover to the chilli growing farmers.
“We received orders from the Government to this effect on Thursday and asked the farmers to pay the premium in the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) after completing the formalities,” Mr. Natarajan has said.
Farmers have been asked to pay premium of Rs. 1,000 per acre for total insurance cover of Rs. 20,000 per acre under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) scheme, he said.
Earlier, chilli growing farmers were allowed to insure their crops only in certain pockets and this was the first time, the facility has been extended to farmers throughout the district, S. Tamil Vendhan, Deputy Director of Horticulture has said.
Farmers have cultivated chilli in 15,022 hectares in this season and ‘we expect 12,000 to 15,000 farmers to avail the benefits by insuring their crops,” he said. The farmers have taken up the chilli cultivation expecting some rains in the coming days, he said.
About 90 per cent of the farmers have cultivated the ‘Ramnad Mundu’ variety and the remaining, the ‘Samba’ species, he said adding the district produced an average 37,500 tonnes of chillies a year. The ‘Ramnad Mundu’, known for its saline and drought resistance, commanded good price, both in domestic and international markets, thanks to the colour and pungency, he added.
