Farmers in Bhadrak district are up in arms against the district administration for allegedly using erroneous parameters of crop-cutting method for crop-insurance under Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojana. The district administration, which had surveyed 94 panchayat s badly hit by natural calamities during the 2011 Kharif season, has now restricted the benefits to farmers of 64 panchayats only.
More than 10,000 farmers belonging to over 30 other panchayats, including Chandbali, Tihidi, Bhandaripokhari and Dhamnagar, have argued that since the parameters fixed by the district statistical office are erroneous, a fresh enquiry be made into the entire issue.
“We are shocked at the district administration’s decision to exclude our areas from the purview of crop-insurance benefit even after heavy losses because of floods. The information provided by the district statistics office for fixing the fresh yield quantity for our block using the crop-cutting method is arbitrary,” rued Sanjay Das, a farmer of Madhapur area in Chandbali Block.
Responding to the accusations, deputy director of regional agricultural office of Bhadrak Prasanta Behera explained, “The crop loss report of a panchayat is prepared with the help of crop-cutting method done randomly in the total cultivated area of the panchayat, and by taking into account the statistical record of the fresh yield and the average yield of the concerned panchayat. If the average yield is less than the fresh yield, then farmers of the block concernedare entitled to the insurance scheme.”
After the field enquiry was over, the crop loss report was approved at the panchayat level and was passed on to the district level jointly by the statistical and agricultural officials. Around Rs 32 crore have been allotted to the Bhadrak district under the crop-insurance scheme to compensate farmers affected by natural calamities in 2011. Around 33,000 farmers in six blocks will benefit under this scheme, he added.
However, the district statistical officer remained unavailable for comment.
