BHUBANESWAR: At a time when farmers are eagerly waiting for early compensation to crop loss they suffered due to excessive untimely rains this kharif season, crop insurance data of more 20,000 farmers are yet to be reconciled.
Crop insurance details of as many as 10,162 loanee farmers of Khurda and Puri districts, which suffered extensive damage in the rain, have not been uploaded in Pradhan Mantri Fasl Bima Yojana (PMFBY) portal fuelling uncertainty about early settlement of insurance claims.
Kharif crops, mostly paddy, in 2.3 lakh hectares of six coastal districts of the State were damaged due to heavy rainfall triggered by cyclone Bulbul.
A review recently showed that the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) have not completed reconciliation of PACS-wise data of farmers while remitting their premium to insurance company for kharif-2019.
“A stock taking of DCCBs revealed that out of 14,63,735 loanee farmers insured under crop insurance scheme, farmers details of 14,43,627 have been uploaded to PMFBY portal till October 31, 2019,” sources in Cooperation department said.
Data pertaining to 20,108 farmers could not be uploaded in the portal due to Aadhar and village/Gram Panchayat mismatch. Further, the insurance companies have reported case of duplicate insurance in some districts. With harvesting of kharif crops going on in full swing and farmers preparing for rabi cultivation, crop loss compensation will not only stabilise economy of the farmers to continue farming but ensure flow of institutional credit to them, the sources said.
As load period of kharif crops is over by July 31 of a calendar year, the farmers covered under PMFBY are required to deposit the insurance premium by that date.
Unable to upload details of farmers in PMFBY portal, the Cooperation department had requested the State Government to move the Centre for extending the deadline to September 15 for uploading data.
The Central Cooperative Banks (CCBs) which have been financing about 70 per cent of the total crop loan in the State had uploaded application of over 13.78 lakh farmers in the portal under the crop insurance scheme.
Even after three months of the cut off date, the short term cooperative credit structure have failed to complete the process.
Farmers of Western Odisha districts were on relay hunger strike for 40 days in the district headquarters of Sambalpur demanding insurance claim for crop loss they sustained in 2018 drought.