Bhubaneswar: Crop insurance will be completely free for farmers for the next three years, Cooperation Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said here, Monday.
Presenting the performance of his department at a meeting reviewed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Nayak said the government will pay the farmers’ share of premium (2 per cent of sum assured) for the next three years crop insurance cycle – Kharif 2023 to Rabi 2025-26. He said crop insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was made optional for loanee farmers from Kharif-2020.
As many as 84.45 lakh farmers’ applications have been enrolled during 2022-23 under PMFBY. During 2021-22, 31.93 lakh farmers’ application count got the claim benefit and `1,166.02 crore of claim was paid to these farmers.
The minister said during 2023-24, the government has planned to bring more transparency in implementation of crop insurance scheme and enhance the insurance coverage to over 15 lakh farmers. During Kharif-2022, crop loan of `8,710.78 crore has been disbursed to 18.02 lakh farmers. During Rabi 2022-23, crop loan to the tune of `7,972.79 crore has been disbursed to 16.55 lakh farmers.
The minister said as per the election manifesto, interest-free crop loan limit has been enhanced from `50,000 to `1 lakh from Kharif2022 and around 7 lakh additional small and marginal farmers have benefited from this scheme during the season. Under the scheme, a total of 32.44 lakh small and marginal farmers of the state have availed Rs13,974.60 crore of interest-free loan during 2022-23.
Number of farmers availing crop loans has gone up from 6.40 lakh in 2000-01 to 34.57 lakh in 2022-23. The amount of loan extended to farmers has increased from `438.36 crore to `16,683.57 crore during the period. Out of the functional 2,710 PACS and LAMPCS, 2,295 have been migrated to Core Banking Solution platform to facilitate online functioning by developing state’s own software.
The department, the minister said, is planning to bring in over 40 lakh farmers under the coverage of cooperative crop loan dispensation mechanism. The department is on the way for activating 3,000 micro ATMs in the PACS/LAMPCS to achieve the commitment of the CM to take banking services to the doorstep of farmers in rural areas.
The government, the minister said, has planned to link all market yards, municipal markets, krushak bazars with e-NAM. The state has also planned to set up grading and cooling infrastructure in all major production clusters of fruits, vegetables so as to reduce losses and empower Mission Shakti groups/FPOs and promote interstate trade in agriculture commodities during 2023-24.
PNN
