TIRUCHY: With less than 10 days left for registering crops under Prime minister Crop Insurance Scheme, only 7 per cent of farmers have enrolled. Though the Agriculture department has repeatedly advised farmers to enrol, most of them seem to show little to no interest.
So far, 7,000 acres in the district have been insured.
Copious rain and water from Mettur dam are cited as reasons for the lukewarm response. With Samba season nearing the halfway mark, thus far about 45,000 hectares (1.11 lakh acres) is being used for samba and thaladi season paddy cultivation.
The last date for enrolment under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is November 30. Sources in the Agriculture department said the enrolment rate has been declining over the past couple of seasons in the district. Last year, only 25,000 acres was insured out of the expected 70,000 acres.
Apart from the allegation of improper distribution of previous year insurance settlement, farmers cited the availability of irrigation as the second major reason for not opting for insurance.
“Drought is the major issue in the delta region. Now there is copious flow in the Cauvery and irrigation canals, with the monsoon showers providing boost. It’s an assured success for us in the season, thus we are not interested in insuring our crops,” said M Rajesh, farmer in Lalgudi.
Rajeshwaran, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Tiruchy, said, “We organised special awareness campaigns to encourage farmers to enrol, yet there is no interest. Thus far, only 12,756 farmers have enrolled paddy in about 8,143 acres in the district. While the targeted area being 45,000 acres, the prevailing numbers are
much lesser.”
He added that apart from paddy, maize and cotton crops are witnessing very low enrolment. About 11,276 farmers who availed agri-loans were automatically enrolled into crop insurance, apart from them only 1,480 non-loanee farmers voluntarily insure their paddy crops this season. Farmers can enrol at all
government E-service centres in their locality before November 30.