BANGALORE: The Government will launch a weather-based crop insurance scheme in 10 districts from the coming kharif season.

The scheme will provide farmers with insurance cover and financial support against deficit or excessive rainfall and extreme fluctuations in temperature resulting in crop losses.

The Government has submitted to the Centre a detailed proposal on weather-based crop insurance, officials in the Department of Agriculture told The Hindu on Thursday.

Drought-prone districts

Bidar, Bijapur, Bellary, Chitradurga, Gadag, Gulbarga, Haveri, Kolar, Koppal, and Tumkur, which are drought-prone districts, will be covered under the pilot scheme. The Government declared 128 taluks drought hit this year, and a majority of the taluks are in these districts.

About two lakh farmers will benefit from the scheme. It will most probably be implemented at the hobli level because weather data for the past 25 years is available. The Agricultural Insurance Corporation (AIC) has selected Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jharkhand for implementation of the scheme from this kharif season.

The AIC has been running the pilot weather insurance scheme since kharif 2004, and it is said to be a more promising risk mitigation scheme.

The Centre has asked the AIC to extend the pilot scheme to cover two or three States in consultation with the State Governments concerned. The scheme will be operated on an actuarial (calculated risk) basis with an element of subsidy. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has allocated Rs.100 crore for the scheme in the Union Budget for 2007-08.

The scheme was conceived by the Centre in the wake crop losses due to vagaries of the weather. The farmers covered under the scheme will be compensated for the crop losses due to deficit or excessive rainfall.

Premium

The premium to be paid is 10 per cent of the sum insured. Farmers will contribute two per cent while the State and Union Governments will contribute four per cent each. The National Insurance Company will provide the coverage. Claim settlements will be based on AIC guidelines, the officials said.

The Government will also continue the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme in its current form for kharif and rabi 2007-08. The scheme is currently yield-based. It was launched in the State in 2000 and covers crops notified by the Government.

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