Bengaluru: Encouraged by its success in distributing compensation and insurance of over Rs 3,000 crore among drought-stricken farmers this year, the Agriculture Ministry is now planning to make the process more efficient with use of technology.
Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda said the idea was to cut down the time it took to assess the crop loss. While it took three months or more for information on crop loss to reach the department from farmers today, he said in future GPS-enabled “tablets” would be used to asses crop damage. The GPS in the tablet would not only give the exact location of the area of crop damage, but also help send photographs of the field in question and the report in real time.
“For the first time, the government has released Rs 693 crore to insurance companies within 10 months of the assessment of crop failure and from next year, this will be further reduced to four months,” he said, disclosing that in all, the government had disbursed Rs 3,100 crore in compensation and insurance to farmers. To bring more farmers under insurance cover, the government plans to launch Karnataka Raitha Suraksha Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana this year, he said.
“Only 12 per cent of farmers have opted for crop insurance. But we want more of them to opt for it now that state and Union govts are ready to subsidise the premium they need to pay,” he said.
