Bring Saral Crop Insurance Scheme: Activists

Nagpur: State Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has said in his budget speech that Gujarat and many other states have already walked out of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. If the amendments suggested by it are not accepted at all, then Maharashtra can also abandon the same scheme.

Ajit has said that other options can also be explored to give compensation to the farmers of the state. The state is also laying great emphasis on the model of Beed. Under this, if the compensation exceeds the premium, then the state will bridge the amount. If the premium exceeds the compensation, Then the state government will get back part of the money from the insurance companies.

Agricultural workers have said that all they want is that this scheme should be farmer-friendly. They have also demanded that the system of payment of insurance claims be simplified by counting a village as a unit to measure the loss. At present, the claim is paid only when the entire block of villages is damaged, except for a few.

Risk cover for soybean

Kishore Tiwari, chairman of the state government’s task force Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission, has said that they have demanded that the unit should be further reduced to measure the loss. Even instead of a block, it should be taken to a village or even to an individual farmer’s holding.

Ganesh Nanote, a farmer from Akola, has also said similarly that the loss should be measured on a village basis rather than a block.

He has said that getting the full sum assured is also very difficult. For example, the risk cover for soybean comes to around Rs 36,000 per hectare. Even if the claim has been paid, it doesn’t go over Rs 10,000 at all.

A veteran agricultural worker from Wardha Vijay Jawandhia also said the same thing that insurance should be paid even if farmers of a village suffer losses.

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