smartcybers786@gmail.com 
A farmer spreads a harvested crop of maize for drying on the outskirts of Bangalore.—AFP/File
#Indias #farm #insurance #proves #costly #vulnerable
New Delhi: After years of low rains, soybean crops were devastated, Dilip Patentar, Dilip Patent, last year, because it needs less water and counts on the government’s crop insurance scheme that if it did not work, it was covered. But the gambling failed and he lost half of his crop. Then the insurance money never came.
“I received an insurance payment in 2019, and since then I lose the crops almost every year every year, with low rainfall,” said a 49 -year -old Patidar in five hectares of fields in Madhya Pradesh district of Madhya Pradesh.
The Indian government runs the world’s largest agriculture crop insurance scheme by subsidizing insurance to reduce the premium of farmers. But the Indian think tank analysis of the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) said that farmers living in climate -driven districts like Mendesor suffered more premiums, the insurance cover was low and it received less payment than farmers in low -risk districts.
The analysis states that it disrespects the purpose of a scheme that can be an important means of enhancing farmers’ flexibility. According to CSE -administered India’s Atlas Atlas, climate change is rapidly affecting more than four million hectares of Indian crops in 2024.
According to Indian government data, only half of India’s 1.4 billion people – less than 46 % – a sector that supports 70 % of rural households and produces 16 % of the country’s GDP.
The monsoon crops of Pateder were insured, but they are still disappointed to wait for any payment, while he said that farmers have already been compensated in neighboring villages. “I checked my bank passbook and saw that the insurance was deducted around the INR10,000 ($ 115) for the premium, but what’s the end?” He asked.
Launched in 2016, the form insurance scheme aims to insure 50 % of all agricultural land by 2020, but only 30 % of the insurance by 2021, but according to the latest official data. CSE program director Amit Khawrana said that the Indian crop insurance scheme could prove to be an important safety network for climate -driven farmers.
But, he said, “Farmers should take advantage of it, which means that weak people have to pay a low price for better help,” he said. However, this is not the case right now. The CSE analyzed 2023 monsoon crop insurance data for 21.5 million farmers in agricultural districts, which the government has ranked because it is at risk of high and high climate change.
Analysis shows that farmers in the high -risk districts pay 70 % higher in premiums compared to low -risk districts and 60 % higher than in high -risk districts. Despite paying high prices, farmers in very weak districts also received a 20 % lower amount of insurance payments.
“From a farmer’s point of view, the main challenge with the insurance scheme is a lack of transparency,” said Donathi Narasimha Reddy, a public policy expert in the southern state of Telangana.
Reddy said the farmers often talk about not making any payment after losing their crops, or there is little amount of money.
Tech
Korana, a CSE, said that in addition to sharing the financial burden of the premium, the state governments should look to technology to improve insurance work for farmers.
He cited the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, which became the first to introduce a digital crop survey in India in 2018, which used satellite and other tech to track crop production. This process praised the survey of a very critical physical crop.
“High quality production data with strong weather data of our wider weather monitoring system has increased transparency and confidence in the system with strong weather data,” said Deputy Director of the state crop insurance department.
Referring to the state government’s data, Venegopal said maximum transparency has helped Andhra Pradesh reduce the amount paid for insurance, which has been reduced by about 4.0 % of the total premium to 10 % from the national average of the total premium. Federal and state governments pay the rest.
The Indian federal government launched a survey of digital crops in 12 states in 2023 and is now planning to launch them in all districts by March 2026.
Using technology, including mobile apps, global positioning, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the government wants to increase the precision of crop production estimates. It is expected, it will increase the performance and transparency of crop insurance and facilitate the default claims.
But in the Mendesur change, it is not enough for farmers like Patent to come soon. “I’m not having a break,” he said. “The government has to solve these problems soon. Otherwise, where will the food come from?”
