Punjab to come up with own crop insurance scheme

Chandigarh, May 30

The state government has decided to come up with its own crop insurance policy, rather than implementing the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

The main reason being cited for the state government’s resistance to joining the PMFBY was that the scheme was optional and farmers not willing to opt for crop insurance would have to be paid compensation for crop loss by the state government through disaster relief funds. However, it is also a fact that the announcement comes in wake of the widening political gap between the state’s ruling party Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP at the Centre.

State Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Dhaliwal today said the state government could not trust the Centre for the crop insurance policy for Punjab farmers. “Just the way they have refused to give us our dues under the Rural Development Fund (RDF) and National Health Mission (NHM), we fear that they can leave us in the lurch on crop insurance too,” he said.

He said while he understood the immediate need for crop insurance, considering the huge loss to paddy and cotton crop over the past two years, he was not convinced with the features of the scheme. In the past two years, almost Rs 1,500 crore has been paid as compensation to paddy and cotton farmers for crop loss. Just recently, the state government had enhanced the compensation to be paid to farmers for crop loss by nearly 25 per cent.

It is learnt that a presentation on the new PMFBY was made by the Agriculture Department to Dhaliwal today, where he studied the implementation of the scheme in Haryana. It may be mentioned that the state and Centre contribute 40 per cent each, while the farmer pays 20 per cent of the premium.