Government working on agriculture crop income insurance Home

The central government is working on for introduction of an agriculture crop income insurance, for the benefit of the farmers, said Union Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Parliamentary Affairs, M Venkaiah Naidu.

He added that this would help the farmers at from various issues including those related to the monsoon, lack of storage, lack of assured power and also restriction of free trade between the States. Unless Centre and States join together in the scheme, it is not easy to implement because the resources required is vast and the sector is a challenging one, he added.

The centre was going to give Rs 8.5 lakh crore and also looking at reducing the interest rates further, in order to promote the agriculture to improve the food security, he said. "I had asked the Finance Minister to reduce the rates, he says unless the economic situation improves and growth rate increases it has to be looked at," he said.

On solving loan related problems in aricultural sector, the Government of India wants to reverse the trend of farmers availing loans from private money lenders to financial institutions. A World Bank study says only 45 per cent of the farmers are getting loans from institutions, while the rest are getting loans from private money lenders and the government wants to reverse that to financial institutions. The Banks should also look at lending to the farmers.

"Central government wants to be liberal in the export of agricultural produces whenever farmers get remunerative price, you can keep a buffer of 25 per cent food grains over and above requirements and allow remaining to be exported whenever farmers get a remunerative price and that should be allowed. This is a structural change to be addressed," he added.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/