BHUBANESWAR: Discripancies in crop yield and crop loss estimates resulting in delay in settlement of insurance claims of farmers, the State Government has directed district collectors to submit revised yield date within a week.
Wide variance in the final yield data provided by Agriculture and Revenue departments for assessment of crop loss put the state government in a fix.
While the joint crop cutting experiment (CEE) report of Agriculture department and Directorate of Statistics shows a crop loss about 90 percent in the 27 districts hit by drought last year, the Revenue department has reported loss of 55-60 percent.
Despite 'severe' drought in 27 district of the State, record production of foodgrains, mostly paddy, during the 2015 kharif marketing season has baffled the designated agriculture insurance companies.
The issue was discussed at a high level meeting chaired by Development Commissioner ER Balakrishnan here on Wednesday.
The Development Commissioner directed the district collectors through video conferencing to prepare a revised crop loss report on the basis of actual yield data collected from the fields.
Since farmers who has sustained more than 50 percent crop loss would be eligible to get compensation, the district collectors are advised not to inflate the figures.
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) which was launched in January this year provide time bound seasonality alongwith calculation of claims settlement by insurance companies and payment to farmers.
The time line for receipt of final yield data for assessment of crop loss has been fixed as "within one month from final harvest".
The state government has received the final yield data from the districts for assessment crop by January. Ideally, the claims of the farmers should have been settled by March, official sources said.
Agriculture Secretry Manoj Ahuja told reporters that agri-insurance app will be used during crop-cutting field survey and the districts have been directed to complete the on-going land use survey by September 8.
It has been decided to use a smart phone for the purpose. An Agri-Insurance app is launched and officials concerned like Revenue Inspectors (RIs), Village Agriculture Workers (VAWs) and Statistics officers will take photographs on the spot and send them to State headquarters server. Analysis will be made here and result crop loss assessment report will be out within a week, he added.