Telangana State pitches for insurance to crops sown under Kharif

Hyderabad: Telangana government had asked the Centre not to consider area factor as a criteria for deciding crop insurance. The government wants the Centre to calculate the crop loss based on the number of crops sown during the Kharif season.

According to the officials of Agriculture Department, the insurance companies implementing the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) have calculated the total number of farmers affected due to the drought as 3,30,570 and considering the area factor the amount calculated is Rs 242 crore.

If the Centre accepts the proposal sent by the State government, then the farmers would be benefitted by another Rs 153 crore for the 2015 Kharif season. Sources said that they had sent two sets of calculations to the Centre. One based on area factor and another based on the number of crops sown and explained how the area factor would cause loss to the farmers.

The variation between the two factors is huge, they said. When calculated on the basis of area factor, some farmers had sown two different crops in their land and due to drought both withered in 2015. It be noted here that, the NAIS is no more a player in Telangana after new scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched from 2016.

But interestingly, the National Agriculture Insurance Company of India which took part in the bidding process for the last two decades in the two Telugu States, to implement NAIS did not participate in the bidding process of PMFB. The State government is now contemplating to take up the issue with the Union Ministry of Agriculture, sources said.

By Md Nizamuddin