Good news for the peasant fraternity. Over 45,000 farmers across the State have been covered under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) for the Kharif-2017 season.
Among those who registered for the scheme, there were also over 1,700 non-loanee farmers as well. Over 29,400 hectares of land have been covered under the scheme.
Ahu (autumn) paddy, Sali (winter) paddy, jute and black gram crops are the notified crops to have been covered under PMFBY during the Kharif-2017 season.
"This is the first time Kharif has been covered under the PMFBY in Assam. Besides, for the first time non-loanee farmers were also registered,” said Mowsam Hazarika, Assistant Director of agriculture department.
He added, “the number of loanee farmers registered across the State is 43,700. Besides, 1,747 non-loanee farmers have also been brought under it.”
The cut-off date for registration of farmers was July 31. “The progress has been good across all the districts. All the districts were divided into clusters for coverage under the scheme,” he said.
All the old 27 undivided districts of Assam have been compartmentalised into eight clusters for implementation of the scheme.
There is a District-Level Monitoring Committee (DLMC) headed by the Deputy Commissioner of the district and with members from the Agriculture Department, implementing agencies, banks and other concerned departments.
The committee’s task is to monitor implementation of the scheme by providing fortnightly crop condition reports and periodical reports on seasonal weather conditions, loans disbursed and extent of area cultivated. It also monitors Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs).
Specific districts or areas within the eight clusters were selected for each crop for implementation of the scheme.
For Sali paddy, the scheme is to be implemented at the Gaon Panchayat (GP) level, with each Gaon Panchayat to be considered as one unit for the purpose of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCE).
For other crops like Ahu paddy, jute and black gram, the unit of insurance will be revenue circle district and sub-division.
Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd is the implementing agency for undivided Nagaon, Dima Hasao, Kamrup Metro, Kamrup, Baksa, Morigaon, Goalpara, undivided Sonitpur, Chirang and Dibrugarh districts.
HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company Ltd is implementing the scheme in undivided Sivasagar, Darrang, Nalbari, Jorhat, Bongaigaon and Karimganj districts.
ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd is responsible for Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Barpeta, undivided Karbi Anglong, Cachar and Tinsukia districts.
Royal Sundaram General Insurance Company Ltd is the implementing agency in undivided Dhubri, Udalguri and Dhemaji districts.
The PMFBY was officially launched in January 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the idea was to implement it in all the States across India in association with the respective State governments.
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