Modified agriculture insurance from summer

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat government will be adopting the Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) from the coming Kharif season in the summers.
Officials said the state did not adopt the new scheme from the current Rabi season as notification on the previous NAIS had already been brought out by the time the new scheme was announced by the Centre's cabinet committee on economic affairs four months back.
Sources said the new scheme will help prevent scenarios like the recent stand off between Gujarat and the central government over payment of crop insurance to farmers who suffered losses due to water scarcity last year. The issue had assumed a political colour. Officials also said that the MNAIS is more farmer-friendly. Relating its advantages, an official said since actuarial premiums will be paid by states for insuring crops, claim liability will be on the insurer which is the Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) in this case. Secondly, the unit area of insurance for major crops is village panchayat. "The crop cutting experiment for estimating the yield will be carried out at village level. This is presently being done at taluka level and is resulting in disparities at time. Since doing it at village level requires enormous manpower and other resources, we will begin the transition from cluster level and then move to the village as a unit," said an official.
With the introduction of MNAIS, it is expected that an increased number of farmers will be able to manage risk in agriculture production in a better way and will succeed in stabilizing farm income particularly at the time of crop failure on account of natural calamities.
Meanwhile, the four-member panel constituted by the Union agriculture ministry to check loopholes in implementation of agriculture insurance is carrying out meetings with officials from different states. The committee, headed by former Union secretary P K Mishra, is expected to submit its report in the next three months.