Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd today said the Haryana government has taken a policy decision to lower the size of insurance unit under the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) to village clusters during this season.

“This policy initiative (lowering of area size) of the state (Haryana) government is expected to give a more realistic picture of yield losses in the event of natural calamities or pest and disease outbreak and thereby expected to benefit the insured farmers even if occurrence of such calamities is confined to smaller areas or few villages,” an AIC official said.

However, this could not be verified officially with the state government.

This decision is taken for the first time since the launch of the Centrally-sponsored Crop Insurance Scheme in kharif season 2004.

AIC is the implementing agency of the NAIS. Small and marginal farmers are supported with 10 per cent subsidy in their premium to be paid.

The sole basis of claim settlement is the crop-wise and notified village cluster-wise yield rates arrived through crop cutting experiments conducted by State government and submitted to the implementing agency at the end of the season.

These seasonal yield rates will be compared with the respective guaranteed yield of that area or crop, the official said.

If there is a shortfall in seasonal yield furnished as against guaranteed yield of a crop in a village cluster, then all the insured farmers in that village cluster will be eligible for a claim in proportion to the shortfall in seasonal yield, he added.

Since the launch of the scheme during the kharif season 2004 in Haryana and till last season (2010), as against a total premium of Rs 20.72 crore collected from 5,94,810 insured farmers, claims amounting to Rs 34.50 crore have been settled among 1,18,228 beneficiary farmers.

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