CHENNAI: A record number of farmers insured their crops this year during the Samba season (2021-22) under the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme (PMFBY) as the deadline for enrolment ended on November 15. In all, over 16 lakh farmers insured their standing crops in nearly 27 lakh acres. Official sources told TNIE that during 2020-21, around 12 lakh farmers had insured their crops in 25 lakh acres.
PMFBY was launched in 2016. The premium rate is based on the cost of cultivation fixed by district-level committees, and in accordance with the percentage of loss of crops, the insurance claim will be paid to farmers.
The increase in coverage area was due to widespread publicity and awareness campaigns conducted by the Agriculture Department from the month of August since enrolment for the Samba season commenced on September 15. Citing weather forecasts predicting unusually heavy rains, the department had advised farmers to enrol under PMFBY so that they can get insurance claims in case of crop damage.
Also, due to heavy rains, farmers could not enrol under the scheme for around a week and the State had requested the Union government to extend the deadline by 15 days. Since the deadline was not extended, the Agriculture Department directed the Common Service Centres (CSCs) and the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies (PACCS) to function till 12 am, including on November 13 and 14 which were holidays, to maximise coverage and manage the crowd ahead of deadline. Thus, for this season, a whopping 12 lakh farmers had enrolled through CSCs.
Agriculture officials said enrolment cutoff date for Samba paddy is open for the districts of Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Virudhunagar, Kanyakumari, Dindigul, Ariyalur, and Namakkal till December 15. The cutoff date for each crop district combination is fixed based on the seasonality discipline i.e peak sowing period. Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Societies and nationalised banks that had collected the premium from loanee farmers have started remitting the amount on National Crop Insurance Portal from November 16.