FARM INCOME INSURANCE PROGRAMME TO BE LAUNCHED ON A PILOT BASIS
DURING RABI 2003-04
CONSULTATIVE
COMMITTEE OF THE AGRICULTURE MINISTRY MEETS
The Government proposes
to take up the Farm Income Insurance Programme (FIIP) on a pilot
basis during the Rabi 2003-04 season. The pilot project will be
taken up in 23 districts of 18 States for wheat and rice. This
was stated by the Agriculture Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh while
addressing a meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to
his Ministry here today. He said that based on the outcome of
the pilot project, it is proposed to fine-tune the Programme and
launch it from Kharif 2004. The Programme as well as the pilot
project would be implemented by the Agriculture Insurance Company
of India. The Farm Income Insurance Programme would target two
critical components of the farmer’s income namely yield and price
through a single policy instrument. The existing National Agricultural
Insurance Scheme (NAIS) which came into effect from Rabi 1999-2000
provides relief in the case of yield fluctuations only. The Farm
Income Insurance Programme has been conceived to provide income
protection to farmers by integrating the mechanism of insuring
production as well as market risks. Besides protecting farm incomes
, the Programme aims at ensuring sustainable production in the
agriculture sector, food and livelihood security, crop diversification
and enhanced competitiveness of the agriculture sector in the
context of exports.
Under the proposed
Programme, a farmer’s production and price risk for the crop produced
by him would be protected by ensuring the minimum guaranteed income.
If the actual income falls short of the guaranteed income, the
farmer would be eligible for a compensation to the extent of indemnity
from the Agricultural Insurance Company. An area approach as in
the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme would be used for actual
yield and price measurement of the insured crop. A premium subsidy
of 75% is proposed to be given in case of small and marginal farmers
and 50% for other farmers. The programme would be available to
all the States and would be compulsory for farmers availing seasonal
agricultural operations loans from financial institutions and
optional for non-loanee farmers. The NAIS will be withdrawn for
the crops covered by the FIIP, but would continue to be applicable
for other crops.
Participating
in the discussions, members welcomed the proposed Programme. Some
members stressed the need to include more crops under the Programme
and ensure that small and marginal farmers get its maximum benefit.
Those who took part in today’s meeting included S/shri Chunni
Lal Bhau Thakur, Mahboob Zahedi, Rattan Lal Kataria, K.Sreenivasalu,
Devendra Singh Yadav, Ram Murti Singh Verma, Chaoba Singh and
Mahendra Singh Pal from the Lok Sabha and S/shri Ramendra Kumar
Yadav ‘Ravi’, M.J.Varkey Mattathil and V.V.Raghavan from the Rajya
Sabha.
