The latest project report by the Agriculture Department highlighting its achievement in the 2021-22 fiscal has drawn the criticism of various farmers’ organisations in Kozhikode district. They allege that the report is incomplete as the department has not come out with any credible details about the amount disbursed as compensation to farmers under the much-hyped crop insurance scheme.
The main grievance is the inordinate delay in processing the compensation even after the timely submission of claims after going through a number of procedures and technicalities. Allegations are also there against various Krishi Bhavans for the sluggish proceedings related to the insurance claim settlements and the denial of claims citing baseless reasons.
“To be frank, the farmers have lost their interest in the mock insurance programme that does not meet their expectations. One of the main drawbacks is that there is no attractive difference between the premium amount and the processed claim amount in case of any crop loss,” says Jijo Thomas, a functionary of We Farm farmers’ movement. He says that the delayed fund processing is spoiling the whole projected virtues of the scheme.
Leaders of Indian Farmers Movement say that the conditions prescribed by the government to process the compensation claims are totally impractical for many large scale rural farmers. “To insure the crops, one will have to cross a lot of technical hurdles apart from paying the premium amount. In case of any cross loss, he has to struggle again for completing various technicalities to submit the claims. The unending wait is the third phase,” they say.
Johnson Kulathingal, State general secretary of Kisan Janata, says the Agriculture Department is yet to look into the crop loss created by wild animals. “The assessment of loss is still carried out by the Forest Department officers, which is hardly an acceptable method for farmers. There should be a proper committee comprising members of Revenue and Agriculture Departments to assess the loss other than leaving the whole activity to another department, which is concerned with the protection of wild animals alone,” he remarks.
Criticism is also high against the mode of selecting beneficiaries for various farming projects under Krishi Bhavans. Joy Kannachira, chairman of We Farm, says only political parties and their supporters are taking advantage of such benefits. “Farmers are rarely getting any chance to attend the panchayat-level meetings and get a picture of the future projects and proposals to take advantage of them,” he laments.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Department sources claim that the crop insurance scheme has witnessed a fair number of enrolment unlike in the past. The details of such fresh enrolments and disbursed compensations are available with various Krishi Bhavans to prove the reality, they argue. According to them, the department spent ₹340 crore in the past fiscal alone for various agricultural projects.
