Crop Insurance

There have been shocking news of farmers taking grave measures due to the instability of crop yields in the news. The effects of such events like drought can be softened with crop insurance which will protect farmers from the harsh results.

Here is why Crop Insurance is a basic requirement that all farmers should adopt:

• To help stabilize farm incomes, especially in the years that disaster hits.
• To provide farmers with financial support and insurance coverage in the event of natural calamities, diseases and pests.
• To encourage farmers to implement progressive farming practices with better technology.

Features and Benefits of Crop Insurance:

The important features and benefits of crop insurance include:

1. The fact that the insurance will provide financial support in the unfortunate event of crop failure. It will thus be a critical instrument in the development of crop production.
2. Encourage farmers to adopt progressive farming practices and higher technology in Agriculture.
3. Crop insurance helps farmers maintain flow of agricultural credit.
4. On a larger scale, it is not just the insured farmer who will be benefitted from the crop insurance. The entire community will be directly and indirectly benefitted in the form of maintaining production & employment, taxes, generation or market fees etc. Further, the net accretion to economic growth will be affected.
5. Another important benefit is that crop insurance streamlines loss assessment procedures and also helps to build up accurate statistical base for crop production.

What's covered, What's not under Crop Insurance:

Over the years, the list of things that are covered in crop insurance has evolved to benefit farmers. Depending on what policies that the farmer opts for, both the personal and property need of the farmer may be covered. Following is a list of what's covered and what's not under such policies:

1. Loss or damage to the property of the insured farmer
2. Damage or loss caused due to fire or natural disaster (including storm, flood, tornado, earthquake, cyclone etc.)
3. Coverage for personal accident. This includes the insured farmer and the farmer's family members).
4. Cover for loss of pump set
5. Cover for damage/ loss of tractor
6. Coverage for damage/ loss caused by power failure

List of companies which provide Crop Insurance:

Following are the list of General Insurance Companies which offer Crop Insurance Schemes:

1. Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd.
2. Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Co. Ltd.
3. Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd
4. IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd
5. HDFC ERGO General Insurance Co. Ltd.
6. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd
7. Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited
8. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd
9. Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Limited
10. SBI

Crop Insurance Claim process:

Framers must register themselves with the insurance provider company to begin with. It is necessary to register the marketing surplus at the sowing of crop in order to get crop insurance. The insurance company will then offer the appropriate coverage scheme. The coverage scheme includes market price from past or minimum support price guarantee.

The premium for any type of price insurance must be paid by the farmers. The government will help in the premium payment in the initial stage.

In case of market price falling: During the harvest period, in case the notified market price drops below guaranteed price, then the farmer will be compensated by the insurance company.

In case of damage: First, the yield data need to be received from the State/UT Govt. according to the prescribed cut-off dates. Then the claims will be run down and settled by IA. The individual Nodal Banks will then receive the claim cheques and claim particulars. This will be followed by the bank at the grass root level crediting the accounts of the individual farmers. The particulars of beneficiaries will be put up on the bank's notice board.

The IA will devise a way to estimate the losses at Individual farmer level. DAC/State/UT will be consulted for this process and will be in context with the particular disaster such as flood, cyclone, landslide etc.