Govt has decided to increase coverage of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana(PMFBY) and enrol atleast 10 lakh farmers.
What is PMFBY?
- It is a crop insurance scheme for the farmers whose main aim is to provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.
- The Scheme covers all Food & Oilseeds crops and Annual Commercial/Horticultural Crops.
- It is a voluntary scheme.
- Premium: The prescribed premium is 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all rabi crops. In the case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium is 5%.
- Premium cost over and above the farmer share was equally subsidized by States and GOI.
- However, for NE GOI share is 90%.
How is the implementation of the scheme in Assam?
- In the rabi season in 2020-21 more than 6 lakhs farmers have enrolled. Govt wants to increase the coverage to at least 10 lakhs in this years kharif season.
- The govt have selected Blackgram,Sali paddy and Jute for this year as the notified crop for this kharif season.
- Last year govt has exempted the farmers of their share of premium =>It has helped to increase the coverage of the scheme to the small and marginal farmers.
mportance of crop insurance scheme for Assam:
Agriculture of Assam has two main problems:
- Irrigation facility in Assam is very poor=>It manily depends on rainfall for its production.So,if the rainfall is not sufficient it greatly reduced the total yield of the state.
- Flood problem in Assam is one of the most important reason why crop production especially of rice is adversely affected.
- As a result of the two pronged problem the small and marginal famers of the states are greatly affected. It also discourages them to commercialize their production.
Crop Insurance scheme will greatly relive the farmers from crop failure due to flood, pests and all sorts of natural calamities.
