Over 4 crore farmers benefitted from crop insurance scheme: Chouhan

Dedicating the New Year to farmers, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday said the Cabinet had decided to continue with the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and also weather-dependent Fasal Bima Yojana till 2025-2026.

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He said under the scheme if an insurance company delayed compensation to a farmer, it would have to pay 12 per cent additional interest. He emphasised out of over eight crore claims received from the farmers under the scheme last year, over four crore farmers got benefitted.

He said while Rs 34,000 crore was collected from farmers under the scheme, Rs 1,70,000 crore rupees as claim were given to them. 

He also said assessment of crop damage would be done through remote sensing now for which Rs 824.77 crore has been kept for logistical purposes. He said Rs 3,850 crore budget has been approved to increase DAP reserves in the county, so that farmers would get it well on time. He said farmers are getting 50 kg DAP bag for Rs 1,350 at subsided rates. 

Govt to purchase harvest directly

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said in order to ensure farmers get decent prices during fluctuating market rates, the government would purchase harvest directly from them under PM’s Asha programme.  

He also said the government had decided to remove 25 per cent purchase cap on pulses, particularly dal (pigeon pea), urad dal (black lentils) and masoor dal (red lentils), to increase their production. He said now government would purchase 100 per cent of these pulses from farmers.

He also said the government had decided to done away with the minimum export price (MEP) on non-basmati white rice which paves way for export of rice. He also said the government had signed an MoU with Indonesia under which India would be exporting one million metric ton non-basmati white rice to Jakarta. “All three decisions are in favour of farmers on the New Year,” Chouhan said. 

He also said several "farmer-friendly” decisions had been taken, including import duty on raw oil — which was increased from zero per cent to 27.5 per cent; import duty on refined oil has been increased to 35.75 per cent. Besides, MEP of $950 per ton on basmati, $490 per ton on non-basmati white rice and 10 per cent on ‘uble chawal’ has been removed. He added export duty of $550 on onion per ton has also been removed. He said food grain production for 2023-24 has increased to 332.2 million tonnes in comparison to 329 million tonnes in 2022-23.