STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Farmers of the state received a total of Rs 293.12 crore against claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in the last two years.
The amount has been disbursed to 4, 97,291 farmers as compensation against notified crops damaged by different natural calamities during the fiscal years 2020-21 and 2021-22, informed Assam's Agriculture Minister Atul Bora while addressing the inaugural programme of Crop Insurance Week under PMFBY at the Directorate of Agriculture campus here on Thursday.
Bora said that the state government has borne an amount of Rs 238.75 crore as its share, including farmers' share, in the last four crop seasons started from Kharif season 2019 to Rabi season 2020. He said that the notified crops under PMFBY are Sali paddy, black gram, jute, summer paddy, potato, sugarcane and rape and mustard seeds.
Bora further said that the state government has taken various steps to popularize the PMFBY among the farming community of Assam, adding that as per the government's decision farmers have to pay only Rs 100 as farmers' share up to one hectare of crop land under PMFBY. The remaining amount will be borne by state government.
The Agriculture Minister said that the eight clusters have been formed under the scheme for covering a large number of farmer and five insurance companies have been empanelled for the purpose. He also stated that Aadhar linkage is mandatory for farmers' registration so that only eligible farmers can get benefits of the scheme.
It may be mentioned that on Thursday, Bora ceremonially distributed cheques of claims amounting of Rs 2,93,260 under PMFBY to six farmers of the Dhemaji and Kokrajhar districts . He also flagged off Digital Display Vehicles as a part of an awareness campaign among the farming community of the state.
Participating at the inaugural programme of Crop Insurance Week, Dr Ashish Kumar Bhutani, Additional Chief Secretary and Agricultural Production Commissioner, urged the officers, employees and insurance companies concerned to make the crop insurance scheme more popular among the farmers.
Anant Lal Gyani, Director of Agriculture, Assam delivered the welcome address at the programme.
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