YSR Free Crop Insurance Will Ensure No Farmer in AP Suffers Losses

Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday credited Rs 1820.23 crore under the ‘YSR Free Crop Insurance’ scheme into the bank accounts of 15.15 lakh farmers who have lost their crop during 2020 Kharif.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the government has taken the responsibility of supporting the farmers at all hard times and thus brought in the free crop insurance scheme, without levying the burden of premium on farmers.

Unlike in the previous government, where the farmer has to pay his share, while both State and Central governments will be paying an even share of the premium amount to avail insurance, the State Government had revamped the scheme by paying the entire insurance premium ensuring that all the farmers enrolled in e-crop platform get their share of insurance directly with no middlemen.

The Chief Minister said that a total of Rs 3788.25 crore was spent alone on this crop insurance scheme in the last 23 months, including the pending dues of Rs 715.84 crore left by the previous government. Besides these, the State government had spent Rs 83,000 crore towards farmer welfare in the last 23 months, whereas for Rythu Bharosa alone Rs 17,029 crore was spent.

Further, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the government has been working to safeguard the interests of the farmers and thus established 10778 RBKs integrating with village secretariats to benefit the farmers. He said that loss in Kharif 2020 is being compensated by the onset of the next Kharif, ensuring that no farmer suffers from losses. Taking transparency in governance to the next level, all these details, compensation for the crop loss will be displayed at RBKs for social audit and those missing out from the list can get enrolled at RBK itself. Not just from seeds to marketing but RBKs also serve the purpose of crop purchasing centres, he said.

He said that the State government had credited Rs 1038 crore as Input Subsidy for those farmers who lost their crops in natural calamities, with no delays ensuring that every farmer gets compensated in the same season. Besides these, the government had spent Rs 18,342 crore for procuring paddy and Rs 4761 crore towards purchasing other crops and support the farmers.

In order to provide free nine-hour electricity to farmers during the daytime, Rs17,430 crore was spent. Additionally, the government had cleared Rs 960 crore paddy procurement arrears and Rs 384 crore seed procurement arrears left by the previous government.

Supporting the farmer community, the government had set up Agriculture Advisory Committees at the village level, zonal level, district level, and state-level in connection with the RBKs to guide the farmers in crop planning. In order to benefit dairy farmers, the State signed an MoU with Amul to give a better price with an additional of Rs 5-15 per liter to the farmers.

Taking another step forward for the farmers, the government is setting up multi-purpose centers under each RBK at a cost of Rs 14,000 crore. Under the YSR Jala Kala scheme, the government had provided over two lakh borewells at a cost of Rs 4932 crore, also providing motors to poor farmers. He said that the government kept every promise made during elections and strictly implemented the election manifesto.

Ministers K Kannababu, Special Chief Secretary Poonam Malakondaiah, AP Agri Mission Vice-Chairman MVS Nagi Reddy, and other officials participated in the event.