Jammu, Mar 17: Five years of its launch, the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) has failed to take off in the Kashmir Valley, while only a few thousand farmers have been covered in Jammu region.
 In  written reply to a question in Legislative Assembly, the other day, the government said that the scheme was yet to take off in Kashmir division as the Agriculture Insurance Company Limited (AICL) – the implementing agency for the scheme, has failed to open its office and create  infrastructure  to start its operation in the Valley.
 Meanwhile, the achievement under the scheme in Jammu division is also not much encouraging, as in last three years only 10,445 farmers have been covered under it and more surprisingly instead of going up, the number of beneficiaries during this period has shown a downward trend.
 The government figures revealed that in 2009-10, about 4347 farmers availed the benefit of the scheme, but in  2010-11, the number fell to 2442.
 The following 2011-12 year also reflected a very meagre improvement with only 3666 farmers covered under the scheme.
 However, the government claimed that the Agriculture Department was pursuing the matter with AICL with regard to the implementation of the scheme in the Valley and is also exploring the possibility to rope in private players in the Crop Insurance Sector.
 “Possibility is being examined to get the horticulture crops (Apple and Mango in four Tehsil each in Kashmir and Jammu divisions) included under Weather Based Crop Insurance Schemes (WBCIS)” the government reply claimed.
 However, it said that the scheme does not provide cover against the wind and hailstorm adding that the insurance companies “are agreeable to provide cover against hailstorm only as an add-on cover for which the companies estimate additional premium @12 per cent while for windstorm coverage weather data is required and this aspect is being looked into in the Agriculture Universities.”

Lastupdate on : Sun, 17 Mar 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 17 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:00:00 IST