The Andhra Pradesh Government has asked insurance companies and officials to revamp farm insurance plans. “Compensation given in times of distress is far less than investments put in by farmers. If this goes on for some time, they might as well think twice before taking crop insurance cover,” said the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Addressing the Nabard (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) seminar here on Tuesday, he called for synchronisation of NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) works with agriculture.
“This will help in two ways. While coming to the rescue of farmers in addressing severe shortage for labour, it will also help labourers to find work in non-NREGA days too. If we do not, labourers will find it tough to find work when farmers choose to mechanise farming,” he said. He asked Nabard to study areas where NREGA works could be synchronised with farm activity.
While asking banks to consider reducing interest rates on loans to self-help groups, he pointed out that most of the loans given to them would primarily be invested in agriculture. He said the Government would bear the interest component with effect from January 1.
“Uptake of agriculture borrowing in the State has gone up by 3.5 times to Rs 48,000 crore from Rs 14,000 crore eight years ago. But per acre lending is very low at Rs 22,000 as against Rs 44,000 crore in some other States,” he said.
Asking banks and Nabard to focus on lending to tenant farmers, he felt that they were denied compensation in times of natural disasters. “We need to give loans to these farmers and ensure that State-sponsored benefits go to them,” he said.