The Assam government will roll out the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in the state from this season with an aim to benefit over 5.5 lakh farmers in 2016-17.
"Assam is all set to implement the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana from Rabi season this year. Our target for the season in 2016-17 under PMFBY is 5,53,000 farmers," Assistant Director of Agriculture (Crop Insurance and Horticulture) Mowsam Hazarika told PTI.
During the current season, a wide range of crops, including summer paddy, wheat, potato, sugarcane, rapeseed and mustard will be covered, he added.
Under the PMFBY scheme, paddy, jute, black gram and green gram will be covered during Kharif next year, Hazarika said.
"The Director of Agriculture, Assam has already completed the bidding process under PMFBY. National Insurance Company is the lowest bidder for all the five clusters in Assam," Hazarika said.
To improve yield data quality and timeliness, smart phones will be used, he added.
"For effective rolling out of the scheme, training of Agriculture Department officials and publicity-cum-awareness programmes among the farmers will be organised in coming days," Hazarika said.
He, however, said there is no budget provision for implementation of the Scheme in Assam.
Contingency fund proposal/supplementary demand proposal has already been submitted to the State Government for implementation of the scheme, Hazarika said.
In this context, a meeting of 'State Level Coordination Committee on Crop Insurance' was held today under the Chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary and Agricultural Production Commissioner K K Mittal.
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