Metran Kayal rice, the branded rice produced from the paddy harvested from the polder of the same name, was formally launched in the market by Minister for Agriculture V.S. Sunil Kumar here on Thursday.
Mr. Sunil Kumar said the government had finalised a system for rooting out the inordinate delay in the disbursal of procurement prices to the farmers.
The work was on to ink an agreement among various cooperative and commercial banks on the one hand and the Departments of Civil Supplies and Finance, on the other. Once the procurement was over, the receipt from the Civil supplies Department could be presented at the designated bank by the farmer for receiving his remuneration.
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Crop insurance
The government would reimburse the banks with interest as and when the funds arrived in their kitty, the Minister said. According to him, currently the government owed ₹250 crore to farmers as remuneration for paddy procurement.
He said that July 1 would be celebrated as Crop Insurance Day from this year. From July onwards, farmers would be able to insure nearly 25 varieties of crops at a nominal premium. In the age of climate change, the insurance would provide farmers with necessary financial support whenever there was a crop failure, he said.
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The Minister launched the Metran Kayal rice by handing over the first bag of rice to M.K. Karunakaran, the farmer who had fought a valiant battle against the corporate takeover of the polder. MLAs Thiurvanchoor Radhakrishnan and K. Suresh Kurup, District Collector C.A. Latha, and others spoke on the occasion.