Farmers Movement Archive

Farm outreach: UP drive to bring max farmers under flagship crop insurance scheme

Lucknow: Less than a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his government’s decision to annul the three contentious farm laws, the Yogi Adityanath government in UP is set to mobilize the farming community by launching a statewide drive from December 1 to bring maximum number of farmers under the Central crop insurance scheme — Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). The flagship scheme entails coverage and financial support to farmers in the event of crop failure due to natural calamities, pests and diseases. The move comes close on the heels of the start of the winter session of parliament from Monday, when the Centre is likely to move a bill to repeal the three farm laws. The week-long drive will be carried out by the UP government in coordination with the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare (MoA&FW) and financial institutions, including commercial banks and regional rural banks. This marks the ruling BJP’s attempt to stem the simmering disquiet among farmers, who threaten to continue the stir till their demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP and sacking of junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son Ashish is an accused in Lakhimpur violence, are met. As per agriculture department records, updated till August 31, Uttar Pradesh in 2019-20 had a total cultivable area of more than 35.5 lakh hectares with around 47lakh farmers insured under PMFBY. This, in effect, translated into Rs 16,743 crore insured sum. Records show UP was way behind Maharashtra and Rajasthan, where 1.45 crore and 85 lakh farmers respectively, have been insured under PMFBY. In fact, UP accounted for just over 7% of 6.12 crore farmers insured under the scheme nationally. The state agriculture department has decided to carry out the campaign in 75 developmental blocks across 75 districts, where number of insured farmers are on a lower side. In a communique sent to district magistrates, additional chief secretary (agriculture) Devesh Chaturvedi said, emphasis should be laid on aspirational districts and districts with a substantial population of Scheduled Tribes. The areas where the scheme is proposed to be taken up rigorously include Sewapuri in PM Modi’s constituency of Varanasi; Campierganj block in CM Yogi’s political backyard of Gorakhpur and Pathar Deva assembly seat of UP agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi. Besides, an awareness drive vis-a-vis PMFBY is proposed to be scaled up in Nawabganj (Bahraich), Sirsiya (Shrawasti), Utraula (Balrampur), Lotan (Siddharthnagar), Vijaipur (Fatehpur), Ramnagar (Chitrakoot), Chatra (Sonbhadra) and Naugarh (Chandauli). Special vehicles to spread awareness in different districts about the scheme will be flagged off by Shahi from Lucknow on December 1. Plans are also afoot to stream the success stories of farmers in 75 blocks on social media, including Twitter and Facebook. The state government will also use the audio-visual media to air special programmes on the scheme..

The Times of India

2021-11-29

Lucknow