Delayed monsoon has now made the State Government implement season-based crop insurance scheme in all the 27 districts of Chhattisgarh, including Surguja.The scheme has been implemented for paddy, maize, soya bean, peanut, moong and udad crops in the current Kharif season.
A State-level technical committee, constituted under Director, Agriculture, has decided the crop-wise and district-wise total insurance amount, premium rate and premium amount, after a study of the crops received from crop insurance companies and the figures of average rainfall provided by the Meteorological Science Centre.
Directives have been issued to all agencies, including Agriculture Department, to ensure implementation of the scheme seriously, officials said. The Agriculture and the Cooperatives Department would pay premium grant from the provisioned amount for the financial year 2014-15. The scheme has been brought into force according to the administrative instructions and operational guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Cooperatives from time to time.
Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal has appealed to the farmers to come forward and take benefit of the scheme. The Minister instructed the field officers to make wide publicity of this important scheme in all districts. As per the notification, in accordance with the provisions of the guidelines of the scheme, crop insurance companies have been selected for all districts of the State.The companies concerned would implement the scheme in the districts allocated to them. The Surguja district has been allocated to ICICI lombard General Insurance Company limited.
The scheme will be compulsory for notified crop and loanee farmers of notified area and optional for non-loanee farmers. As per the guidelines of the scheme, 50 per cent of the premium amount will be paid by the farmer and of the remaining 50 per cent, the Central Government will pay 25 per cent and the State Government 25 per cent. It has been made clear in the notification that the farmer who cultivates in Regha and Adhiya land would also get benefits of the scheme.
The dates for insurance marketing work and implementation of crop insurance scheme for both loanee and non-loanee farmers have been decided. The period of insurance for the loanee farmers will be from April 1 to July 15, 2014.The last date for receiving insurance proposal from non-loanee farmers will be July 15, 2014. The insurance claim will be paid within 45 days.