Farmers hold stir, say Centre’s crop insurance scheme useless

Jaipur: Claiming that the norms of the central government’s crop insurance scheme were such that it did not serve any purpose, farmers in Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts held protests on Thursday to demand full compensation from the state government for crops damaged due to rain.
“There is prediction for more rainfall till the end of this month.This should be considered as a natural disaster in terms of crop losses. The crop insurance scheme does not serve any purpose. Almost 90 per cent of our crops are damaged and what we are supposed to receive is only 20% compensation (under the scheme),” said Manjeet Singh, a farmer from Sriganganagar.
He said that most farmers in northern Rajasthan do not get their crops insured under the scheme compared to those living in the southern part of the state. “The norms are such that the insurance scheme does not benefit the farmers here,” Singh said.
There is another reason behind the protests by farmers. They allege that adulterated seeds of BT Cotton were given to them, which resulted in the plants getting infected by pink bollworms, commonly called “gulabi sundi”.
“Earlier this worm would attack the plants on its outer layer but now it is found hatching inside the cotton buds. We are still using the traditional BG-2 (hybrid) cotton seeds for farming but now they have become mixed with BT seeds. The crops are not growing on time,” Singh said.
Officials of the agriculture department said that the scheme against which the farmers are protesting is of the central government and the state department cannot make any changes to it.
“The scheme is technically to cover the crops which are damaged within 14 days of the crop having been cut and kept in the open. The farmers’ demands have to be sorted out by the Centre,” an official said.