Late rains may make farmers think insurance

The one fallout of the deficiency in rains and the resultant poor start to the kharif season may be a...

The one fallout of the deficiency in rains and the resultant poor start to the kharif season may be a serious spike in the number of farmers opting to go for insurance this year.

As the rains are delayed,people have an apprehension of a low yield and they may opt for insurance. More numbers of non-loanee farmers are likely to opt for insurance; loanee farmers are already insured when they go for bank loans, said K C Mishra,director,National Insurance Academy,that has designed rainfall insurance schemes and has been the advisor for the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS). Last year,the Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) paid a compensation of Rs 1,476 crore for the entire country under the NAIS. As a result,as many as 30 lakh farmers benefited from this cover. The sum insured was Rs 15,656 crore,while the premium was to the tune of Rs 514 crore.

Out of the 30 lakh,over 17 lakh were from Maharashtra and the compensation package worked out for them last year was the highest in the schemes history a Rs 468-crore package. This will be paid to the state farmers in the coming days.

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Against this,the crop insurance compensation doled out in the last nine years aggregated Rs 1,022 crore for Maharashtra. Out of the 1.2 crore farmers in Maharashtra,nearly 34 lakh farmers had opted for insurance last year.

Crop insurance policies kick into effect after sowing is complete. Agriculture officers say that after sowing if farmers sense a stress in rain patterns,it is bound to drive them towards these schemes. The cut-off date for the government sponsored NAIS is July 31 and farmers are required to have one-month-old crops to be eligible for this scheme.

Agriculture officers said it was very likely that this deadline would be extended. We will send the proposal for extending of the deadline. There may be an increase in the number of insurance applicants, said a senior agriculture officer.

On the flip side,agriculture officers also caution that if the rains are delayed for a longer duration,then farmers may abandon all hopes of a kharif crop and opt out of insurance altogether. While the premiums for government insurance schemes will not be changed,the premiums for commercial insurance schemes will go up as sowing is delayed.

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The more rains are delayed,the premiums are likely to increase for commercial insurance schemes, said Mishra. However,in Punjab and Haryana,most farmers go for commercial insurance,he added.

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