NAGAPATTINAM: AS information on sown farmland and crop-cutting experiments provided by the District Agriculture Department and the Economic Affairs and Statistics Department are at variance, the Agriculture Insurance Company of India refused to release its crop insurance share for 2015-2016.
However, farmers are accusing the Union government of not releasing the crop loss insurance since 2015-2016.
On March 27, 2017 the Centre sent a explanation for not releasing its share to the State government, citing the skew in the information provided by the district Joint Directors for Agriculture (JDAs) and district Directors for Economic Affairs & Statistics Department (DES) over sown land and crop-cutting experiments (CCE).
According to S K G Giridharan, honorary secretary for Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, in a letter sent by Ashish Bhutani, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, he clearly pointed out the varying data provided by the district authorities.
“For releasing Union government’s share on crop insurance, the Ministry of Agriculture asked Tamil Nadu to submit district-wise details of sown area for Paddy II (Samba) for 2015-2016 Rabi season. The State government on September 12, 2016, forwarded a letter with the inputs of district JDAs and DES. It was found both the departments had submitted different data. For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture official cited that in Tiruvallur district, the JDA said about 644 hectares have been sown in Kadambattur firkha, however, the DES mentioned 1183.24 hectares as sown area in the same firkha. Likewise in Kodumudi firkha of Erode district, the JDA said 14 hectares were sown while the DES mentioned 1198.47 hectares as sown in the letter sent to the Centre. These figures need to be reconciled,” he said. He further said, “The crop cutting experiment (CCE) is done only if a firkha witnesses 20 hectares of crop failure.”