Launched a weather insurance plan to safeguard the farmers, effective this year
The government of the Indian state of AP has launched a weather insurance plan to safeguard the farmers, effective this year – reported The Times of India.
The agriculture minister stated that the new scheme intends to provide compensation to farmers who lose their crop due to insufficient rainfall. The new scheme will be implemented first in Guntur, and later extended to other districts gradually.
The agriculture department is preparing the modalities for the scheme.
The crop insurance scheme already in force provides for relief only if 50% of the crop is damaged. However, the new scheme will provide compensation to all farmers irrespective of the quantity of crop damaged.
In the last five years, the AP government has allocated INR19.61 billion for crop insurance scheme as against INR7 billion spent between 1999 to 2004, as quoted in the newspaper.