Hyderabad, September 24: The Union government is planning to unveil a new agriculture insurance scheme– Modified National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (MNAIS), but with hefty premiums.
The new premiums would be five to 10 times more than the previous ones. However, the state and Centre would bear most of the burden.
This was announced by agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy at a press conference here today.
The minister said that under the new scheme, the premium for paddy would be Rs 1,078 as against the previous one at Rs 330 (Rs 30 being the subsidy), for maize it would be Rs 1,008 as against Rs 275 (Rs 25 subsidy) and for groundnut it would be Rs 2,308 as against Rs 253 (subsidy Rs 28).
Raghuveera Reddy said the new scheme would come into force from next month with the union government issuing a notification.
He informed that it would apply to rabi crop. The new insurance scheme would be implemented as a pilot project in 50 districts across the country. Nellore, Prakasam and Warangal districts have been chosen from the state, he explained. Explaining the salient features of the new scheme, the minister said that if the premium was paid, the farmer would get the insurance in the event of crop loss due to floods, famine and by any other vagaries of the nature.
Under the new scheme as soon as the government declares the crop loss, 25 per cent of the insurance would be paid upfront, he said.
Raghuveera Reddy said that the differences between the loanees and non-loanees would be removed in the new scheme and all would get the same treatment.
The minister said that as part of it average threshold yield of seven years would be calculated as against the previous system of five years.
Even if the crop losses occur for two consecutive years, they would not be taken into consideration in calculating the average threshold yield, he explained. As far as the indemnity was concerned it would be taken as 70 per cent of the average threshold yield of seven years as against 60 per cent in the previous system, the minister said and added that under the new scheme if there was crop loss up to 70 per cent the indemnity would be paid.
Though the Centre had accepted to take the services of private insurance companies, the state would opt for government insurance companies, Raghuveera Reddy said.
The new scheme includes post-harvest insurance also.
Raghuveera Reddy claimed that the Centre had accepted almost all the suggestions being made by the state government in preparing the new scheme.
-Agencies