Monday, March 21, 2016

Modi to meet bankers, insurers on crop insurance

Prime Minister is set to meet senior officials of all banks and insurance companies in Mumbai on Tuesday to discuss the implementation of the government's scheme, an official source said on Monday.
The finance ministry source said Finance Minister will also attend the meeting at the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development office along with officials of the finance and agriculture ministries.
The meeting will discuss ways to bring more loanee farmers under the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana' (PMFBY) so as to realise the target of 50 per cent insurance coverage.
Of the farm credit target of Rs 8.5 lakh crore set for this financial year, only Rs 75,000 crore is under crop insurance.
Currently, only around 25 per cent of the country's total crop area is covered by insurance.
Drought and unseasonal rains last year forced the state governments to seek over Rs.10,100 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund.
Under the new crop insurance scheme to be implemented from April 1 for kharif crops to be sown from June and available to both loanee and non-loanee farmers, the premium is a low two per cent of sum insured for all kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all rabi crops.
For annual commercial and horticultural crops, farmers will have to pay a premium of 5 per cent. The remaining premium share, as was the case with previous schemes, will be borne equally by the central and state governments.
Addressing farmers at the here on Saturday, Modi explained the benefits ofand said it had been evolved after wide-ranging consultations.
The 2016-17 budget has increased the allocation for agriculture, irrigation and rural infrastructure in order to help farmers cope with the impact of two successive years of poor rainfall.
Source : Business Standard

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