Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief secretary Asit Tripathy has urged the farmers to enroll themselves under Fasal Bima Yojana (FBY) through banks and cooperative societies or online platforms by 31st July.
The chief secretary, who reviewed the progress of the enrolment under FBY, here on Tuesday, directed the officials of agriculture and cooperative department to expidite the resistration of farmers under the FBY.
Since this year enrolment under insurance is voluntary, Tripathy has directed to intensify the awareness and mobilisation activities.
The agriculture principal secretary, Sourav Garg, said that 8 crops -paddy, maize, cotton, groundnut, millet, arhar, zinger and turmeric will be covered under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana during the kharif season. He said that the land record has been linked with the National Crop Insurance portal.
The agriculture director, M Muthu Kumar, said that the farm land covered under crop insurance has increased in the last five years. While 12.57 lakh hectares of land was covered under crop insurance during 2016 kharif season, 18.52 lakh hectares covered in kharif 2019.
Farmers have to chip in 2% of premium while the State government and Central government to share the remaining premium amount at 50:50 basis. The farmers will have to pay 5% of the premium in case of commercial crops like zinger, turmeric and cotton.
The meeting was attended by development commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, finance principal secretary AK Meena, food supply and consumer welfare secretary Veer Vikram Yadav, revenue additional secretary Abhaya Kumar Nayak and agriculture deputy director Rajesh Das.
