Odisha to cover 8 Kharif and 9 Rabi crops under Crop Insurance Scheme: CS

The Odisha government Monday decided to cover eight crops for Kharif season 2022 and nine crops for Rabi season 2022-23 under the Crop Insurance Scheme, officials said.This was decided in the State Level Crop Insurance Coordination Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra.While reviewing the performances under crop insurance, the chief secretary directed insurance companies to ensure cent per cent disbursal of all settled amount directly to bank account of the farmers within a couple of weeks.

The Odisha government Monday decided to cover eight crops for Kharif season 2022 and nine crops for Rabi season 2022-23 under the Crop Insurance Scheme, officials said.

This was decided in the State Level Crop Insurance Coordination Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary SC Mohapatra.

While reviewing the performances under crop insurance, the chief secretary directed insurance companies to ensure a cent percent disbursal of all settled amounts directly to the bank accounts of the farmers within a couple of weeks. He emphasized, ''Farmers’ issues cannot be delayed and all their genuine claims must be paid on priority''. The chief secretary made it clear to the companies that any delay in this matter would be seriously viewed by the government.

Mohapatra also directed the departments of agriculture and farmers’ empowerment, food supplies and consumer welfare, and the Odisha space application center to prepare the plan for crop-wise ‘area and yield assessment’ through space technology.

Development Commission PK Jena asked officials to choose from among the proven technologies and customize those as per the state’s agro-climatic zones. He also said that the satellite imagery would be quite helpful in data sanitization, evidence-based planning, and wider coverage of crop insurance.

The meeting also resolved that satellite verification of ‘crop area and yield’ would be done for all croplands in the coming year.

The eight crops - paddy, groundnut, maize, arhar, ragi, cotton, ginger, and turmeric would be insured during the Kharif season 2022, and nine crops - paddy, groundnut, black-gram, green-gram, mustard, sunflower, sugarcane, potato, and onion would be insured for the Rabi season.

Generally, gram panchayat and urban local body would be the insurance unit for paddy, and the block would be the insurance unit for non-paddy crops. July 31 would be the cut-off date for enrolment of Kharif insurance, said Special Secretary Agriculture SK Chadha.

Director Agriculture Muthu Kumar said: “Crop insurance in the state is being done under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana ( PMBSY) with funding support from both the state and central government. Around 98 percent of the premium amount against each crop is provided by the central and state government on an equal basis, and about 2 percent is contributed by the concerned farmer”.

About 12.30 lakh farmers with 10.50 lakh hectares of cropland were enrolled during the Kharif season of 2021 while the enrolment in the Rabi season of 2021-22 was around 0.34 lakh farmers and 0.41 hectares of cropland.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)