The Eight National Seed Congress concluded here on Thursday with a plea to the Centre to formulate a special crop insurance policy for seed-growing farmers and also to bring in changes in the existing insurance scheme by covering farmer as a unit.
Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya, speaking at the valedictory session of the three-day event, said he would raise the issue of crop insurance coverage with farmer as a unit at the Union Cabinet meeting.
He noted that several State Governments, including Telangana, have been demanding for such changes in the crop insurance scheme as village and mandal (tehsil) as unit is not benefiting farmers.
He mentioned that the Centre is planning to bring in a comprehensive agriculture insurance scheme soon by extending insurance cover not only to crops cultivated by farmers but also to the entire family of a farmer so that it would act as a protection cover to education and health needs of the family.
‘Helpful features’
Expressing concern over the continuing spate of farmers’ suicides in Telangana, Mr. Dattatreya said the seed bill drafted in 2004 and now forwarded to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture had several features helpful to the farmers.
Telangana Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said though the average burden of debt on farmers in the State was high but availability of average institutional credit in States such as Karnataka and Punjab was double, compared to Telangana.
Chairman of the organising committee of the Seed Congress C. Parthasarathi, who is also the Secretary of Agriculture, said the State Government had plans to increase the seed growing area by two-to-three times from the present 2.9 lakh hectares in the next few years.
Source : The Hindu
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