The Hindu Business Line : Centre announces modified insurance scheme for farmers

The Union Government will announce a comprehensive long-term rehabilitation package in two months, targeting 30 districts in four States where a large number of suicides by farmers were reported in the recent past.

The package was likely to include a pilot Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) to ensure proper linkages between credit, insurance and risk cover.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Monday, Mr Sharad Pawar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, said the package would have components to take care of the credit, insurance, irrigation, productivity and marketing needs of the farming community.

Earlier, Mr Pawar presented a package proposal before representatives of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh - the four States where the suicides were more rampant.

Fifteen districts in Andhra Pradesh, six each in Maharashtra and Karnataka and three districts in Kerala will be covered in the package.

The Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, and the Agricultural Ministers of Karnataka and Kerala took part in the meeting.

Refusing to comment on the probable financial outlay for the package, Mr Pawar said it would be known after the Cabinet cleared the proposal. He, however, indicated that allotment for irrigation alone could be about Rs 3,000 crore.

The Agriculture Ministry, after incorporating the views of the States, would meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh. Later, it would be discussed with the Ministers for Finance, Health, Water Resources and Health before finalising the package. The process would take 45 days.

In his presentation, Mr Pawar said indebtedness, crop failure, declining profitability, lack of irrigation and weak risk management were found to be the reasons behind the agrarian crisis.

9,000 suicides

Crop intensification, crop diversification along with non-farm linkages and supplementary income avenues could offer a solution to the crisis that forced about 9,000 farmers to commit suicide in these four States since 2001.

Karnataka led the list with 5,910. It was followed by Andhra Pradesh with 1,835, Maharahstra 981 and Kerala with 201.

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