BUDAUN :  Agriculture sector contributes significantly to India’s economy. Requirement of food for the country’s population is met by various crops harvested by the farmers. Farmers work hard to harvest fruitful crops. In case any natural calamity like flood, storm, hailstorm, excessive rain, fire incident etc occurs, the entire crop of the farmer suffers large scale damages. Whatever he invests in growing crop is lost in seconds. These untoward situations pushed the farmer into economic distress. Keeping in view the losses suffered by farmers due to natural calamities and providing relief to them in time of crisis, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, launched the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme (PMCIS) on January 13, 2016. To benefit each and every farmer, a very low premium amount of insurance has been decided under the scheme. Farmers have to pay 02 percent premium amount for Kharif crops, 1.5 percent for Rabi crops and 05 percent for commercial and horticultural crops.

The PMCIS is under implementation in Uttar Pradesh under the dynamic stewardship of Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath Ji. The scheme is highly beneficial to farmers from financial security point of view. In case of crop losses due to natural calamities, the suffering farmers are paid insurance cover amount and financial assistance. Efforts are made to keep interest of farmers alive in farming and they are made available sources of recurring income. Farmers are encouraged to adopt new agricultural innovations and latest farm techniques. Having been covered under the crop insurance scheme, the farmers can borrow agricultural loan. For getting benefit of PMCIS, the farmers have to apply offline or online. In the case of applying offline, farmers can duly fill the PMCIS form by visiting the nearest bank branch. A photograph of the applicant, ID card, address proof, khasra number, account number, proof of sown crop etc. will be required at the time filling the form.

The state government is ensuring benefit of PMCIS to all the desirous and the needy farmers and also timely payment of compensation amount to them. Under the scheme, 25.60 lakh farmers got insured a total crop area of 23.70 lakh hectares in Kharif 2017. Out of these insured farmers, 4.01 lakh farmers were paid compensation amounting to Rs. 244.75 crore. Similarly, 28.13 lakh farmers opted for the scheme in Rabi 2017-18 and got insured a total crop area of 23.07 lakh hectares.  Out of these insured farmers, 1.79 lakh farmers paid compensation to the tune of Rs. 119.85 crore. In Kharif 2018-19, as many as 31.47 lakh farmers got insured a total crop area of 26.87 lakh hectares, out of which 5.58 lakh famers were paid a total compensation of 419.54 crore as per provision of the scheme. In Rabi 2018-19, in all 29.69 lakh farmers opted for the scheme and got ensured a total crop area of 24.22 lakh hectares, out of which 0.38 lakh farmers has been paid compensation of Rs. 18.11 crore.