The state government has decided to implement crop insurance scheme with farmer as a unit in place of the existing village as a unit.
The state government informed the insurance companies that it has decided to consider farmer’s survey number as a unit for implementing the crop insurance scheme.
Agriculture minister Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy held a meeting here on Saturday with the officials of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and representatives of other insurance companies implementing crop insurance scheme.
The agriculture minister informed them that the state government in principle has decided to implement the crop insurance scheme with survey number as a unit and not mandal or village as a unit. “Each farmer should be made one unit for implementing the crop insurance scheme,” he said.
The current system of mandal or village as a unit would not be beneficial to the farmers, who pay premium at the time of obtaining crop loans, the minister said.
Recently, IT minister KT Rama Rao called on IRDA chairman and discussed with him about implementing the farmer as a unit for crop insurance scheme. During the discussions it was decided to convene a meeting with insurance companies and officials of IRDA to finalise village as a unit for crop insurance scheme.
Accordingly, the agriculture minister held a meeting on Saturday. “We have in principle decided to implement farmers survey number as a unit for crop insurance scheme. This is a big step forward in the welfare of the farmers,” Srinivasa Reddy said after the meeting. The minister said that the state government would soon announce a policy decision in this direction.
IT minister Rama Rao said that the state government was committed to making agriculture a profitable profession. Farmer as a unit in insurance scheme was a major step towards making agriculture profitable, he said.
IRDA chairman Vijayan, MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, MLAs Bajireddy Govardhan Reddy and Vinay Bhaskar were present at the meeting.
Source: The New Indian Express