Srinagar, May 22: The Agricultural Insurance Company of India (AIC) today launched the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) Kharief 2010 for Maize, Paddy and Potato crops in J&K.
 The scheme was launched at a function at SKICC here, organized by the Agricultural Production Department J&K in collaboration with National Agricultural Insurance Company India.
 Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan Mir, said though the crop insurance was introduced in J&K in 2004, “lack of awareness among the farmers has kept them from availing benefits under it.”
 “In India the insurance scheme was launched in 2002. We started it in 2004. In Jammu some farmers have taken benefit of this scheme but in Kashmir not a single farmer has opted for it,” he said.
 “Today this session is aimed at bringing the awareness about this scheme. Whenever for any reason the production suffers in the Valley, the farmers have to toil hard to seek help from the government. The government though tries to help them but is not able to do justice to all. So this scheme will ensure that the farmers are compensated in case they face any loss,” he said. According to the minister his department was trying hard to make the people earn good from agriculture. “We have to strengthen the economy of the state. It cannot happen by raising slogans only but serious efforts are required to be made to make people earn with dignity. This scheme is an effort in the same way. We have started this scheme to develop a mechanism to ensure that the farmers are fully paid when they face any loss of their crop,” he said.
 He said the Valley is improving in the production of vegetables and fruits. “In fruit production we are proud to be at number one in the country. We are exporting fruits and it has happened only because of the diversification,” he said.
 Speaking on the occasion M Prasad, Chairman AIC, said that the agriculture sector was highly dependent on weather conditions and was hence prone to risks.
 “These risks are out of our control so the insurance is very important for agriculture. It was for this purpose the scheme was started in 2002,” he said.
  “This scheme is working in 25 states in India including J&K and asks for a very negligible premium from the farmers,” he added.
 Prasad said out of the 12 crore farmers in the country, two and a half crore were taking the benefits of the scheme. “In J&K not many farmers have applied for this scheme till now but presently we are trying to cover more and more farmers here under this scheme to help them at the time of need,” he said.
 “Under this scheme we compare the production with the production in the past five years and give benefits accordingly. In this scheme at the time of claim the farmers do not need to make any documents or to come to our office. We get the loss assessment from the state government and give the benefits to the farmers by depositing the money in their bank accounts. We inform them about it through newspapers,” he said.
 Prasad informed that the scheme was a yield based scheme and will provide the insurance for the loss caused due to non preventable risks like natural fire, lightening, storm. Hailstorm, cyclone, drought, landslides etc. “We are also planning to introduce weather based schemes in the state of J&K,” he added.
 Iqbal Khandey, Principal Secretary to Government Agriculture Production Department said that the scheme was launched again today to make sure that the farmers take benefit from it.
 “Since the past twenty years we have seen great variations in weather in the Valley. This change can cause heavy losses. At such times government is not able to help the farmers fully so this scheme can play a vital role to safeguard the interests of the farmers,” he said.
 Pertinently the scheme will operate on area approach basis i.e if the actual yield in the tehsil at the end of season as compared to guaranteed yield is less, then all the insured farmers will be deemed to have suffered shortfall in their yield.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 22 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 22 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 23 May 2010 00:00:00 IST