Paddy farmers in Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam districts, where below sea-level farming practices are in vogue, are in distress over the crop insurance scheme.
Farming in the fields in the three districts has been exempted from weather-based insurance cover. The fields are to be covered under yield-based crop insurance, but the State government is yet to notify the scheme.
Weather-based crop insurance cover used to be provided by the public sector company Agricultural Insurance Company of India to the State.
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The Union government introduced the Prime Minister’s Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in January this year with a view to providing comprehensive insurance cover at low premium. Four categories of insurance cover are offered under the PMFBY. While weather-based insurance cover is provided to various crops in most districts, paddy farming in below sea-level farming areas have been brought under yield-based crop insurance scheme, as part of the PMFBY. While the State government has notified the weather-based scheme, no such notification has been issued for yield-based insurance.
‘Government’s choice’
The State government is entitled to select the insurer and notify the same. The public sector Agriculture Insurance Company, which has been selected by the State government to provide weather-based insurance cover, is understood to be ready to extend yield-based insurance to paddy farming in the areas mentioned earlier.
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The banks, which have provided agriculture loans to farmers, have already deducted 2 per cent of the loan amount towards insurance cover, which has to be remitted to the insurance company concerned.
In the absence of a government notification, the banks are eager to return the amount collected for insurance cover to the farmers. It could mean that the insurance cover is denied to farmers in Kuttanad and adjoining areas.
The situation poses great danger to farmers, Kuttanad Vikasana Samithy Executive Director Fr. Thomas Peelianikkal told The Hindu . Mere weather-based insurance is not suitable to Kuttanad and several other areas, as threats such as breach of bunds and incursion of brackish water exist there. Yield-based insurance is appropriate there. In the absence of crop insurance, the farmers will be at a great risk. Major damage to crops could mean irreparable loss to the farmers, pushing them to extreme measures, he said.
Uncertainty
Farming in Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam exempted from
weather-based cover
Because of threats such as breach of bunds,
yield-based cover is
suitable here