In an apparent move to boost up the sagging morale of the farmers, particularly those who have incurred huge losses on account of damage to their crops, and prevent recurrences of farmers’ suicide across the country, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is keen to evolve a national consensus on a crop insurance scheme so as to adequately compensate the farmers for damage to their crops on account of natural calamities and other such eventualities.

The Government of Madhya Pradesh has decided to hold a national workshop on crop insurance scheme in Bhopal on June 15-16, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told media persons in Ujjain during a mega convention of farmers of Malwa region.  He said that currently the insurance provisions do not compensate farmers adequately for their agriculture loses and the kind of compensation paid to them is far less than their expenses. However, under the proposed crop insurance scheme, we want to fix a minimum income for farmers so that in event of damage to their crops, they receive a fixed income and at least recover their expenses. Under the

proposed scheme, we would see to it that half of the premium amount is shared equally both by the state and the central Governments so as to put marginal financial burden on farmers. In the event of lack of consensus on crop insurance scheme among the states and the Union government, Chouhan also suggested the idea of setting up a Rskisan kalyan kosh’ (farmers welfare funds) with certain corpus money of Rs1,000-Rs2,000 crore so that farmers in the event of damage to their crops, be compensated from this fund.