Tea Board wants Assam to roll out insurance scheme for small growers

Scheme has been designed by Centre to protect plantation farmers from losses due to fluctuations in yield and price volatility

The Tea Board of India has urged the Assam government to expedite the rollout a Centre-designed insurance scheme for small tea growers of the state.

Bidyananda Barkakoty, vice chairman of the Tea Board, said the Centre had in March informed the Board that a market-linked Revenue Insurance Scheme for Plantation Crops (RISPC) had been designed for protecting tea growers. The Centre said it had shared the scheme with the states for rollout on the basis of shared funding of premium between the central government, state governments and the tea growers in the ratio of 75:15:10.

The Tea Board had earlier appealed the Centre to come out with an insurance scheme in line with ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ for tea growers, to cover them for production-related risks and price volatility in the tea sector.

Barkakoty asked the Assam government to include the rollout of the insurance scheme in its first 100-days programme list. “I hereby request to kindly roll out this scheme in your 100 days roadmap of your government for the benefit of small tea growers of Assam which are more than one lakh in numbers,” said Barkakoty.

The Centre had implemented a price-stabilisation scheme for the plantation crops, including tea, from the year 2003 to 2013 with view to protect the farmers from losses on account of price fluctuations. The RISPC is a step forward in that direction.