Money
Farm insurance fails to attract farmers
Farmers in the district are reluctant to insure their farm products due to hassles they face in receiving insurance coverage from insurers. Another factor is the low insurance coverage for their expected amount.Madhav Aryal
Farmers in the district are reluctant to insure their farm products due to hassles they face in receiving insurance coverage from insurers. Another factor is the low insurance coverage for their expected amount.
Sita Gyawali, a member of Tilottama Krishi Sahakari Baganaskali 2, Pokharathok, complained that she got insurance coverage of only Rs2,200 against the loss of the corn from hailstone despite her insurance claim of Rs27,000. As per Gyawali, she purchased insurance policy worth Rs70,000 for the agro product planted in the land area of six ropanis.
Laxmi Bhandari from Tansen Municipality-9 shared similar experience. Bhandari this year lost vegetable products that she planted in 19 ropanis of land, which was worth around Rs1 million. “However, I declined to insure my crops as the insurer hardly pays 33 percent of the insured amount,” said Bhandari adding that she invested Rs300,000 for the purpose.
Bhandari added that she used to insure her crops previously. “However, insurers provide the insurance coverage based on the investment amount and not on the market value of final products,” she said. Many farmers expressed that the hassles they face during the insurance claims processing have kept them away from insuring farm products. According to them, lengthy paperwork for posting insurance claim is one of the major reasons pushing farmers away from getting insurance for their crops.
As per District Agriculture Development Office (DADO), Palpa, only three farmers this year have purchased insurance policy for their products. Since the last six years, the government has been providing farmers with 75 percent subsidy for premium payments in a bid to boost insurance coverage. “Farmers are reluctant to benefit from the government’s programme mainly due to hassles they face in receiving the insurance coverage amount,” said Santosh GC, chief officer at agriculture unit of Baganaskali Rural Municipality.
The government has announced to provide compensation of up to 90 percent of the market price if the crops are damaged by hailstone, drought and diseases. “As most of the farmers do not insure their crops, they are unable to get the compensation amount when they do face heavy losses due to these reasons,” said Ram Prasad Pandey, senior officer at DADO.
According to him, crops worth around Rs50 million were damaged by the hailstone this year. “Had the farmers insured their crops, they would have been relieved from the compensation in such situation,” Pandey added.