Rupesh Samant

Panaji, Jul 5: After poor response for the flagship crop insurance scheme of Central government in the State, Goa government has formed a special committee to address the problems faced by farmers in availing the benefit, a senior officer said.

"Goa government has set up State Level Grievance Redressal Committee to address the problems faced by the farmers to avail benefit under ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)',” a senior officer from State Agriculture Department department said on Thursday.

PMFBY launched for the benefit of farmers in the year 2016 has only four percent of the total registered farmers in Goa opting for it till date, he said.

The data available with the Agriculture department reveals that total 1,635 farmers of the 35,000 registered, have been insured under the scheme and an area of 1,216.26 ha has been covered under the scheme so far.

PMFBY is an actuarial premium-based scheme under which the farmer has to pay a maximum premium of two percent for the kharif crop, 1.5 percent for the rabi food and oilseed crops and 5 percent for annual commercial/horticultural crops and remaining part of the actuarial/bidded premium is shared equally by the Centre and State governments.

The officer said that the redressal committee is formed under principal secretary of the state.

“The committee will act as authority for redressal of grievance of farmers, banks, insurance company, district authority/department. The committee will dispose the grievance within 15 days time of receipt of grievance,” he said.

The data revealed that for the 2016 kharif season, 744 farmers benefited under the scheme, covering a total area of 543 ha and the sum assured was Rs 576.44 lac. For the 2017 kharif season, 744 farmers were covered with the total sum assured being Rs 446.12 lac.

“As on date, 129 sugarcane farmers have benefited under the scheme and the compensation of Rs 2.95 lac has been paid due to loss of crops during the kharif season 2016 and 2017,” he said.

“Maybe due to the growing misconception about the scheme that it benefits the insurance companies and not the farmers, the scheme is receiving poor response," an official said.