If plans of Telangana Government go well, insurance companies might soon launch agriculture insurance schemes with individual farm holdings as a unit.

With making districts, crops and villages as units for crop insurance yielding no results, insurance companies have agreed in-principle to make holdings of farmers as units in the State.

Telangana Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has said that a pilot would be launched in a backward area to test the model.

“We will launch the pilot after preparing a detailed report on the issue,” he said after a meeting with representatives of Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDA) and insurance companies here on Saturday.

“We have requested them to make farm holdings as a unit to make insurance coverage meaningful. They have related the problems associated with the limitations in this model,” he said.

Interest waning

With high premium rates and generic coverage norms, farmers have been showing no interest in taking an insurance cover for the crop, exposing themselves to financial risks. Farmers’ unions have been arguing that giving cover to only a few crops won’t help.

“If you keep premium rates unaffordable, who will buy a policy? As a result, buying a policy is not on the agenda of farmers,” S Malla Reddy, Vice-President of All-India Kisan Sabha, said.

Pocharam Srinivas Reddy asked the officials of his department to discuss the issue further with IRDA to prepare a detailed proposal.

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