Premium for Crop Insurance will be paid by Odisha Government: Minister Cooperation Atanu Sabyasachi

Bhubaneswar (Kalinga Voice) : “For the next three years Crop Insurance Cycle i.e. Kharif-2023 to Rabi 2025-26 farmers’ share of premium (2% of Sum Insured) will be paid by State government, making crop insurance completely free for farmers. This initiative is unique in the Country.” Said minister Food Supplies , Consumer Welfare & Co-operation Dept. Govt. of odisha,in a press meet after the departmental review by the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik .
Minister Sri Nayak said “Cooperation Department has been mandated to provide all sorts of agricultural production inputs which includes credit for short term seasonal agricultural operations, certified seeds, fertilizers etc. thorough a network of 2710 Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and Large Size Adivasi Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPCS) functioning at the Gram Panchayat level. A three-tiercooperative credit structure functions in Odisha with 2710 PACS/LAMPCS at the Gram Panchayat level, 17 District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) at the district level and Odisha State Cooperative bank ltd (OSCB) at the State level. During Kharif- 2022, Crop loan to the extent of Rs. 8710.78 Crores has been disbursed to 18.02 Lakh farmers. During Rabi 2022-23 Crop loan to the tune of Rs.7972.79 Crores has been disbursed to 16.55 Lakh farmers. Complying to the commitments of election manifesto, the Department has enhanced the interest free loan limit from Rs 50,000.00 to Rs 1.00 Lakh from Kharif-2022 i.e. 1st April 2022, and about 7 lakhadditional small and marginal farmers have directly reaped the benefit from this farmer centric decision of Government.”

He further added “ In the last 20 years, the ambit of crop loan has expanded exponentially from 6.40 lakh farmers in 2000-01 to 34.57 lakh farmers in 2022-23. The amount of loan extended to farmers during this period has also registered a mammoth 38 fold increase i.e from Rs. 438.36 Crores to Rs. 16683.56 Crores.The PACS and LAMPCS during 2022-23 have made available 1.12 lakh quintals of certified seeds and 1.69 lakhs MT of chemical Fertiliser to the farmers at their door step.
To further bring these Cooperative Organisations closer to the rural populace and make them more accessible, the Department has gone one step ahead to increase the network of these credit cooperatives by organising1451 new PACS and LAMPCS with the ultimate aim to have one PACS/LAMPCS in every Gram Panchayat.”
Sri Nayak Said “ Working on the 5T mantra, the Department has fixed an ambitious target to make all transactions in all these Credit Cooperatives online and has successfully onboarded 2295 PACS/LAMPCS in the Core Banking Solution (CBS)Platform and enforced online transactions to bring in transparency by use of technology. This is first of its kind in the entire Country.
Further, facilitation of marketing of agricultural and horticultural products is one of the key mandates of the Department. All the 66 Regulated Market Committeesfunctioning under the control of the Department have been onboarded in e- NAM, the Pan- India online platform to facilitate online trading. Odisha ranks first among the 30 states in terms of number of FPOs registered in e-NAM portal andranks 4thin terms of Inter-Mandi trade value. To further facilitate agri-marketing, the Odisha State Marketing Board (OSAM Board) under the aegis of Cooperation Department has planned to organise Buyer-Seller meets in all the RMCs. The First Buyer-seller meethas been organised on 18th May at Nabarangpur RMC and 17 Tri-partite MoUs signed between Buyers, Sellers and the RMC.
To protect the farmer from climatic uncertainties Cooperation Department has been implementing Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana since 2016 Kharif and 84.45 lakh farmers’ applications have been enrolled during 2022-23 under the scheme. During 2021-22, 31.93 lakh farmers’ application count got the claim benefit and Rs. 1166.02 crore of claim transferred to the accounts of these farmers. The claim disbursement process of 2022-23 is underway.”

He further added ” As a way forward, the Department has taken certain transformative initiatives in the interest of farmers of the State such as Linking all market yards, Municipal Markets, Krushak Bazars with e-NAM, Setting up Grading and Cooling infrastructure in all major production clusters of fruits / vegetables to reduce losses and empower Mission Shakti Groups / FPOs., Set up Capital Region Agriculture Market at Jatni, Bring in over 40 Lakh farmers under the coverage of Cooperative Crop Loan dispensation mechanism, Bring more transparency in implementation of crop Insurance Scheme and enhance the insurance coverage to over 15 lakhs farmers, Set up required infrastructure for banking/storage in all PACS, Operationalise over 3000 Micro-ATMs in PACS to facilitate NPCI approved payment transactions and to develop State Cooperative Training Institute at Gopalpur-on-Sea.”
Principal Secretary Cooperation Sanjiv Chaddha was present during the press meet and outlined the steps taken and to be taken by the department .