- According to the Agriculture Ministry officials,Out of ₹1,400 crore earmarked annually for the north-eastern States under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana,only ₹8 crore was actually spent last year.
- Further,Four north-eastern States namely Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland ,Manipur and Mizoram are not covered under the scheme at all.
- The lack of coverage has left thousands of maize farmers devastated by losses from the fall armyworm pest in the Mizoram without any hope of insurance.
- The reasons for lack of coverage are Insurance companies have been reluctant to bid for these States as (a)administrative costs are high (b)no proper land records (c)historic yield data is not available for these States particularly at the gram panchayat and block level and (d)difficult to conduct CCEs(crop-cutting experiments) needed for many horticulture crops.CCEs are conducted to obtain fair, precise and accurate estimate of the yield of crops.
- The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme) was launched in 2016.The scheme has replaced the two schemes National Agricultural Insurance Scheme(NAIS) as well as the Modified NAIS.
- PMFBY envisages a uniform premium of 2% to be paid by farmers for Kharif crops and 1.5% for Rabi crops.The premium for annual commercial and horticultural crops will be 5%.
Crop insurance fail: only ₹8 cr. spent for NE
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