Maha recasts crop insurance: Isolated losses, post-harvest damage not covered

Time of India

26-06-2025

Nagpur: After the state govt scrapped the one-rupee crop insurance scheme this year, a formal notification bringing back the old system was issued on Tuesday. From this Kharif season, there will be no insurance claim for isolated calamities or post harvest damages.
Farmers in Vidarbha will now have to pay premiums ranging from Rs470 to Rs1,100 per hectare to insure the region's staple crops like cotton, soyabean, tur, and paddy.
Localised losses, as it is called in insurance terms, relates to losses in limited areas ranging from a single village to a group. Earlier, farmers could report such losses within 72 hours and get the claim. Now, these will not be covered. Similarly, even mid-season losses are not covered.
These included losses in the middle of the crop cycle due to reasons like pest attacks or dry spells. Losses to crops stacked in the farms after harvest due to rains or other reasons are also not covered now, said officials.
Now, losses will be measured by the earlier method of crop cutting experiments. Under this, random plots in 12 villages in a revenue circle are chosen prior to cultivation. The output in these farms is compared to the standard yield set for each crop in each district.
by Taboola
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The insurance cover triggers if there is a drop compared to the threshold yield based on the averages of the last 10 years, said an official in the state's agriculture department.
This is a time-tested method adopted since colonial times and covers all types of losses, said officials. However, sources accept that it can leave the farmers at a disadvantage too. The random farms are located in 12 villages, and a revenue circle can have 30 to 35 villages.
In case there are no losses in the villages chosen for measuring the yield, the insurance claim will not trigger for any of the villages in the circle.
The state govt, which introduced the one-rupee scheme in 2023, ended it in April this year. On Tuesday, the formal notification with the new conditions was issued. It was discontinued after huge fraudulent claims were made due to the nominal premium payable. Even barren plots were covered, and claims were made, leading to the decision, said an official.
The move, however, has left farmers disappointed. Pushkar Khapre from Chandur Bazaar tehsil in Amravati, said this leaves hardly any scope for covering the losses. Only crop cutting experiments cannot be relied on; sometimes isolated losses also leave farmers in distress. Khapre represents the district's crop insurance committee.
Activist Vijay Jawandhia said even the threshold yield to measure the losses needs to be revised, and crop cutting experiments should happen at each village.