NAGAPATTINAM: The drought-hit farmers are now a worried lot, upset over the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and private insurance companies.
According to farmers, the private insurance companies are trying to pay them a low amount as insurance by taking into account the sowing period as the crop loss period instead of the harvesting period.
After the monsoon failure and the non-receipt of Cauvery water, farmers in the delta region managed to cultivate crops with groundwater. Despite having grown the crops, the unprecedented rainfall destroyed it completely. Meanwhile, adding to the worries of the farmers who were expecting insurance for the failed crops, insurance companies were considering only the sowing period as against the harvest time.
“With the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the State and Central governments are only paying subsidies up to 26%. Afterwards, if there is any crop loss, the governments point towards the private insurance companies. Now, the private companies are playing games in connection with the insurance amount,” said ‘Cauvery’ Dhanapalan, president, Cauvery Delta Farmers Association.
According to him, the insurance companies were considering crop loss as the loss which happened during the period of sowing, whereas the truth was that 90 per cent loss had occurred. “If the insurance companies consider the loss during the sowing period, farmers could get just `6,000 per acre as insurance. But actually the loss happened only during harvest time. If the companies consider the loss at the time of harvesting, they have to provide `26,000 per acre as insurance,” he added.
Questioning the way crop assessment was done, Cauvery Delta Farmers Associations office-bearer Guru Gobi Ganesan said, “Nowadays, the officials are assessing the crops on the basis of villages. The place chosen for crop-cutting experiment is most often in well-grown parts. Despite 90 per cent of agricultural lands having become barren with the drought, the officials are assessing the remaining 10 per cent areas where crops have grown well.”