Farmers denied crop insurance in Haryana

The Haryana government is yet to notify the crop insurance scheme for the 2014-15 rabi season, despite claiming itself to be a farmer-friendly government.

The state had announced Rs 12,000 per acre as crop loss in the 2014-15 season, and publicised it as the highest, to help farmers tide over crop losses due to excess rain and hailstorm. For the sake of comparison, Delhi had announced compensation of Rs 20,000 an acre.

Haryana is yet to explain why the crop insurance scheme has not been notified - required to implement the scheme.

Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar told Business Standard the state was looking at a public-private-partnership model to provide extensive coverage to farmers. The new policy was being formulated and so the notification was missed this season, he added, without giving details of the PPP model.

Sources in the insurance sector confirmed that no notification for the insurance cover has been announced in the state after the rabi 2013-14 season. State government sources said the Centre had pulled out its insurance premium contribution, leaving the state to bear the entire burden. After that, the state did not take any decision on implementing the guidelines.

Crop insurance is available to a farmer in the notified area for the relevant crop. In weather-based insurance, 50 per cent subsidy on premium is borne by the state and the Centre shares half of the subsidy. In the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme, 10 per cent subsidy on premium is given to the farmer, which is equally divided between the state and the Centre.

Haryana, a state with more than 230,000 farmers and more than half of these in the small and marginal category, has not yet prepared a crop insurance cover to the farmers for the next season. Similar schemes are underway in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, sources in an insurance company said.

Most farmers in the state are still waiting for the field assessment of their farms.

Vijayender Singh Phor, a wheat grower in Shekhpura Khalsa village near Gharaunda in Karnal district, had lost almost 50 per cent of the crop.