Tamil Nadu government remits Rs 607 cr as insurance amount to farmers in Tiruvarur

"Insurance remittances are calculated based on guaranteed yield, which is the average yield in five years. If the yield is lesser than the guaranteed yield, remittances will be made for the losses," Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Agricultural Production Commissioner, said.

He added that government has remitted Rs 607 crore to farmers in Tiruvarur district in 2016-2017, which is the maximum in the state. Farmers in Kanniyakumari district received Rs 1.01 crore, which is the least in the state.

Among the various crops, the government, during the same period, had released Rs 2,808 crore for samba crops across the state.

Bedi also explained that the central government norms mandate the insurance companies to remit the benefits within 21 days of receiving the damage details. "However, due to many issues, remittances get delayed. 

To ensure the timely action, weekly meetings are conducted where representatives of the statistics department, insurance companies, agriculture and horticulture department. 

Following the directions of the chief minister, we have created state and district level wings to monitor the farmer insurance scheme," he added.

According to Bedi, the central government has decided to levy 12 per cent penalty for the insurance companies, if they fail to release the insurance amount.

During 2016-2017, as many as 12.14 lakh Tamil Nadu farmers have received Rs 3,530 crore as insurance remittances from the companies, which is the highest in the country. At the same time, the state farmers had received a maximum of only Rs 936 crore prior to 2016-2017. "Due to various measures taken by the state government, more the 100 per cent farmers have enrolled in the Crop Insurance Scheme," he said.

As per the department data, farmers in the state have paid Rs 149 crore as premium and the state and central governments allocated Rs 632 crore as government shares.

Meanwhile, in 2017-2018, farmers and the government had paid Rs. 110 crore and Rs 638 crore as premium and the insurance companies remitted Rs 1,149 crore. 

The government is also taking measures to get pending Rs 951 crore from the companies. In 2016-2017, farmers and the government paid Rs 692 crore as premium and the farmers received Rs 3,530 crore in return.

Also, the number of farmers joining the Crop Insurance Scheme has increased to 23.56 lakh in 2018-2019 from 15.7 lakh in 2016-2017. In other words, the total insured farmland has increased from 32.47 lakh acres to 34.81 lakh acres.

Even though the state and central government share and pay the premium amount equally, the insurance companies, based on several factors, would fix separate premium rates for each district. "For instance, for paddy crop in delta districts, the premium rate is fixed at Rs 443 per acre and Rs 1,094 per hectare in 2018-2019, while farmers in Virudhunagar have to pay Rs 308 and Rs 761 respectively for the same crop.