The State Government has made it clear that crop loss data at various levels would be collected by the Finance and Statistics Directorate and handed over to Agriculture Insurance Company of India limited for making final assessment under the newly launched Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY). The data would have to be submitted by January 31, 2017 to make claims by the farmers who suffered crop loss due to different natural calamities and mishaps.
Informing about this, Agriculture Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni said that the Directorate would gather data as per the set format. “As per the plan, the Finance and Statistics Directorate would collect crop loss figures unit-wise, crop-wise, gram panchayat-wise, block-wise, district-wise and finally State-wise based on the harvest both on actual yield and individual plot-wise yield.
“The data would be furnished to the insurance company through the Agriculture Department till January 31, 2017. Based on the data, the actual crop loss would be assessed and affected farmers would be paid their insured sums,” said the Secretary during a workshop organised on Monday regarding PMFBY in the State.
The Directorate would send the same data to the Union Agriculture Ministry along with proper certification, checks and due signature of its Director on every page. For the upcoming kharif season, just Aghani paddy and Bhadai maize have been notified to be covered under the scheme.
Gram Panchayats have been made a unit for assessing crop loss for paddy while for maize it is the block. The scheme has been made compulsory for all the loanee farmers whereas others can opt for the coverage against different natural calamities. The State Government had last week issued notification for the PMFBY for farmers of the State and instructions and set guidelines of the scheme have been circulated to all commercial, private, regional and cooperative banks besides lAMPS and PACS for its implementation.
The Secretary also added that four clusters incorporating six districts have been made in the State. “Cluster 1 covers Chatra, Dumka, Giridih, Seraikela-Kharsawan, Jamtara and Gumla where as in cluster 2 we have kept East Singhbhum, Deoghar, Simdega, lohardaga, Garhwa and Sahibganj. Cluster 3 covers Khunti, Ranchi, Palamu, Hazaribagh, Godda and Pakur while in cluster 4 West Singhbhum, latehar, Bokaro, Dhanbad, Ramgarh and Koderma. Nodal officers have been designated in all the 24 districts for conducting the PMFBY,” said Kulkarni.
Guidelines of the rebranded scheme put conditionality that the farmers would have to get their notified crops insured by July 31 to avail the coverage. Also, all the loanee farmers have to be necessarily covered under the crop insurance scheme.