Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, July 1:

The Odisha government has decided to implement National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) during the current Kharif season as the scheme has less premium burden on farmers.

paddy cropThe decision was taken at the State Level Coordination Committee Meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra at the secretariat here today.

Considering the comparative advantage of NAIS, it has been decided to adopt the scheme during the current Kahrif season because it has less premium burden on farmers and provides 100% crop insurance coverage to the farmer, said Cooperation secretary Bishnupada Sethy, who outlined the features of the scheme at the meeting.

The premium is only around 2.5% of the value of all major crops. A subsidy of up to 10% has also been envisaged for small and marginal farmers having landholding of 2 hectares or less.

Mohapatra directed officials to make the process less burdensome and more friendly for the farmers. It was decided that insurance enrollment will be done by Agricultural Insurance Company of India Ltd. during the Kharif season.

It is to be noted that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in his first letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had urged him to review the decision regarding implementation of the National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP) and requested him to introduce a new scheme on crop insurance while keeping the premium rate at the level of the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS).

Under NAIS, the unit area for insurance of paddy crop will be the Gram Panchayats, Municipalities and NACs. For crops like maize, groundnut, jute, cotton, red gram, niger, turmeric, ginger and banana, the unit area of insurance will be the block.

Insurance for paddy will be available to all GPs, NACs and Municipalities in all 30 districts. Groundnut insurance will be available in all blocks of 10 districts; namely Angul, Bolangir, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Bargarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, and Gajpati.

Maize insurance will be available in all blocks of 15 districts, namely Angul, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabrangpur, Rayagada, Mayurbhanj, Kandhamal, Bolangir, Ganjam, Nuapada Sundargarh and Nayagarh.

15 blocks in Koraput, Nabrangpur, Rayagada, Phulbani and Kalahandi districts have been enlisted for Niger crop insurance. Similarly, 12 blocks in Bolangir district, 4 blocks in Ganjam, 8 blocks in Kalahandi, 8 blocks in Rayagada, 3 blocks in Nuapada, and 2 blocks each in Gajapati and Subarnapur districts  have been enlisted for cotton crop insurance. All blocks in 6 districts, namely Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Rayagada and Nuapada have been included for Red Gram ( arhar) crop insurance. All blocks in 9 districts, namely Balasore, Bhadrakh, Jajpur, Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Keonjhar and Mayurbhan,j have been enlisted for jute crop insurance.

Turmeric producing blocks in Kandhamal and Phulbani have been identified for turmeric crop insurance. For Ginger crop insurance, 19 blocks of Kandhamal, Koraput and Sambalpur districts have been enlisted.

Meanwhile, the concerned departments have been asked to furnish yield rate of the concerned crops being enumerated under their supervision to Cooperation department for onward transmission to Agriculture Insurance Company in time.