-The Pioneer Centre must come up with a national policy The Supreme Court’s intervention for the lack of a national policy to help calamity-hit farmers is welcome. Regardless of what we have at the moment for them, the country's bread-earners must be offered all possible support to strengthen the economy. While taking up a number of public interest litigations, the apex court found that the Government had no policy to tackle the...

-The Hindu Business Line Non-loanee farmers availing insurance may be far fewer than data claim Last January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a new crop insurance scheme with the aim of bringing 50 per cent of the country’s farmers under Insurance cover in three years. Data shows that in kharif 2016 — the first season after the scheme’s launch — crop Insurance coverage had risen. However, despite the Centre’s claims, this growth is...

-Down to Earth Government’s policy decisions and ground reports are in conflict with official data on sowing, production and agriculture insurance The Centre’s claim of 94 million metric tonnes (MT) (2015-16) of wheat production, good sowing acreage and success of agriculture insurance scheme is not in sync with reality as government’s own data do not match agriculture ministry’s claims.   The data related to increased acreage, bumper production and success of agriculture...

-Down to Earth The number of non-loanee farmers opting for insurance reached 9.7 million in kharif season of 2016 as against 9.8 million in the same period in 2015    On December 7, the Union Ministry of Agriculture press release claimed that that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has made impressive progress in 2016. According to the press release, “There has been a quantum jump of more than six times...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) launched during the 2016 kharif season to help farmers insure their crops against natural calamities has provided coverage to 366.64 lakh farmers (26.50%), the agriculture ministry has said. The ministry expects the scheme to exceed the target of 30% coverage for both kharif and rabi seasons in 2016-17. The scheme covers 388.62 lakh hectare with sum insured of Rs 1, 41,339...