Centre to launch ‘unified’ insurance product for farmers

The Central  government is  planning to launch an all-in-one insurance scheme for farmers called the Unified Package Insurance Scheme(Bharatiya Krishi Bima Yojna) as a part of its ongoing social security scheme considering rising incidents of farmer suicides in the country.

The policy would contain nine features with mandatory crop insurance.As,formers have to choose at least four other features to get subsidy under crop insurance section.

• This scheme will have various features like crop insurance,health cover,personal accident insurance,live stock insurance ,insurance cover for things used in agriculture like tractors and pumpsets,student safety insurance and life insurance.
• The aim of this scheme is to protect farmers from financial risks,ensure food security ,promote crop diversification and improve growth and compititiveness of agriculturesector.
• This scheme will be implemented through a multi-agency frame work under the control of union agricultural & co-operation department and co-ordination with agencies like commercial banks.co-operative and regional rural banks.
• The scheme would be offered through general insurers and will have a one year cover except for agriculture insurance which will be bi-annual separately for kharif and rabi crops and will be renewable from year to year.
• The policy will protect farmers from unexpected situations and provide insurance to personal assets of farmers like their home,cattle,pump-sets ,tractors.
• This scheme will also provide protection to farmers and their family members in case of accidental death.

FARMER SUICIDES IN INDIA:

• In 2014,India recorded 12,360 farm suicides.This is slightly more than the number of farmer suicides registered in 2013
• Nearly half of all suicides by cultivators in 2014 were in Maharashtra alone ,with Telanagana following
• Bannkrupty contributes significantly more to farm suicides than to other suicides.