Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched NABARD Agri-Credit Monitoring portal in Mumbai Tuesday to help financial institutions to monitor the status of agricultural loans given to farmer. Jaitley said agriculture must succeed for the success of the Indian economy.
Following-up his focus on the agriculture sector in the General Budget 2016-17 presented in Parliament Jaitley said “agriculture will have to grow faster for the country to get rid of poverty and push the overall GDP expansion”. He said that agriculture was absolutely critical to the economy.
The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley said that the revamped insurance scheme being launched by the Government have the potential to reduce distress in the farm sector. He said that they would be rolled-out in a ‘mission mode’ from April1, 2016 to cover Kharif crops. Jaitley said though the country had crop insurance schemes in the past, those were mainly linked to the crop loans and therefore, met with a modest level of success.
“This is a crop insurance scheme with a difference, and the difference is absolutely critical to the Indian farmer” he said. He added that since the new scheme was dependent on large volume, it would cover much larger risks at a very low premium.
The farmers’ premium would be 2% for Kharif foodgrains and oilseeds crops and 1.5% for rabi crops. In the event of a crop failure, a farmer will be paid more. The Finance Minister said the Government aims to cover 50 percent of the farmers, mostly those depending upon rain-fed agriculture.
Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD expressed his bank’s solidarity with all stakeholders in covering 50% of the farming community in India.