Tamil Nadu

Crop insurance scheme a big hit in Ramanathapuram district

RAMANATHAPURAM: The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS), introduced to compensate the monetary loss of farmers in the event of monsoon failure or some other reasons, has become a big hit.

According to the available information with the agricultural department of the district, a record number of nearly 80,000 farmers have insured their standing crops. No other district in the State has so far brought this high number of farmers under the insurance scheme.

The failure of the northeast monsoon, increased awareness among the people about the benefits of the crop insurance scheme, concerted efforts of the district administration to bring as many as acres as possible under the crop insurance coverage and others are said to be the prime reasons for the great success of the insurance scheme.

“It is a record in terms of number of farmers, who opted for crop insurance and total area coverage. The response from farmers to bring their standing paddy crops under the coverage is great ever since the beginning of the process of crop insurance coverage.

The poor rainfall has also awakened the farmers to insure the paddy crop. We tried our level best to propagate the benefits of the insurance scheme,” said R. Kirlosh Kumar, Collector.

Up to November 30, as against the target of 10,000 farmers, 69,639 have paid a premium of Rs.1.30 crore towards 2.15 lakh acres of paddy crop.

Utilising the opportunity offered by the Government, which extended the last date for paddy crop insurance to December 15, approximately 10,000 more have also registered their crops, taking the total number of farmers, who brought their crop under insurance coverage, to around 80,000.

An interesting point is that there was absolutely no response for the scheme last year. Just 240 farmers opted for crop insurance.

“Following the efforts of the Collector, the NAIS brought six more firkas such as Sikkal, Kakkoor, Theriruveli, Keelaselvanoor, Perunazhi and Mudukulathur South under crop insurance. Most of the 15,000 hectares in these areas have been brought under insurance coverage,” said G. Mahalingam, Joint Director, Agriculture.

He said the paddy raised in nearly 90000 hectares was in withering condition due to failure of monsoon.

The present rain would not benefit the standing crop. The situation is worst in all 11 blocks of the district.

He said if the crop was fully damaged, a compensation of Rs.6,816 could be claimed per acre.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu