Bhubaneswar: In the wake of cyclone Fani that damaged crops in more than 1.4 lakh hectares, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi has directed officials concerned to enrol more farmers under crop insurance scheme.
This decision was taken at the state-level coordination meeting on crop insurance held here Saturday.
Minutes of the meeting showed that during the last Khariff season around 15 lakh farmers were registered under crop insurance with a total premium of Rs 1,102 crore.
Target was set to insure at least 22 lakh farmers during the coming Khariff season. With this target, the total premium to be paid by the government is estimated around Rs 1,380 crore, of which 98 per cent is shared equally by the state and Central government and the remaining 2 per cent by the concerned farmer, sources said.
In 2017, the government had paid Rs 940 crore as premium to the insurance companies for Khariff crop, against which the total claim payout to the farmers was Rs 1,726 crore.
During the Rabi season of 2017, the total premium paid was Rs 19.14 crore against which the claim payout was Rs 43 crore.
In 2018, a total amount of Rs 1,102 crore was paid to the insurance companies towards premium. The yield rate report for 2018 has already been given to the companies after the crop cutting experiments.
Senior officers of the Agriculture department are expecting that this year the claim payout may cross Rs 1,200 crore for Khariff crop. The assessment of Rabi crop loss is going on. An amount of Rs 8.23 crore has been paid towards premium to the companies.