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The all-round devastation caused by the recent floods in Kerala has prompted farmers to opt for crop insurance.
The crop insurance schemes are jointly implemented by the Centre and State governments through PSU insurance companies.
Around 55,000 farmers in Kerala have enrolled in 2018-19. However, enrolment is still low compared to the actual potential, thanks to the crop insurance floated by the State Agriculture Department, said BG Shyam Kumar, Regional Manager, Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC).
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) are being notified by the State.
The government has taken steps to include wind damage cover, which would help banana growers, he told BusinessLine .
The RWBCIS was launched in Kerala in the 2008-09 rabi season, starting with the paddy crop in Palakkad. Currently, the majority of crops and areas are covered under RWBCIS, he said.
The AIC, which implemented RWBCIS during the kharif 2016 season, had settled around ₹17.96 crore in claims whereas United India Insurance is set to release around ₹20 crore pertaining to the rabi 2016-17 season.
For the rabi 2017-18 season, he said the first instalment of claims provisionally reported by AIC is ₹75 lakh.
A safety net for farmers
According to him, installing more weather instruments, especially to capture wind speed and rainfall at panchayat level and refining the presently available insurance covers for the notified crops, such as inclusion of excess rainfall cover, will be beneficial to farmers.
At present, claims worth more than ₹10 crore have been settled during the past two weeks on an urgent basis pertaining to previous seasons owing to the natural calamity in the State.
The PMFBY also holds potential due to its indemnity options, which offer scope for immediate claims settlement. One such additional feature is the compensation under Prevented Sowing/Germination Failure claims, which now has benefited Kuttanad paddy farmers.
The estimated claim is around ₹10 crore and AIC has already settled ₹2.5 crore. It is awaiting completion of data entry by banks in the portal for further settlement, he added.
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