More crops to get insurance cover

KOLKATA: It’s a good news for the farming community in India. Agriculture Insurance Company of India ( AIC) is close to offering aromatic and medicinal plants insurance and is also working on insurance products for sugarcane, tea and basmati rice varieties and contract farming.

“We are working on all these products which are likely to be launched over the next few months. Nevertheless, these products are launched after extensive research and have fathomed the potential demand for such products. We hope to launch aromatic & medicinal plants covers soon,” says a senior AIC official.

Currently, AIC offers covers for mango, poppy, potato, grapes, wheat, coconut, rubber, rabi weather, pulpwood, bio-fuel as well as rainfall. AIC has recently launched the Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS), incorporating some modifications after consultation with states to make it more comprehensive. The scheme is being implemented as a central scheme on a pilot basis in 50 districts in the last two years of the 11th Five Year Plan, starting from the rabi season of 2010-11.

“With the introduction of the scheme, it is expected that an increased number of farmers will be able to manage risk in agriculture production. MNAIS has two components — compulsory and voluntary. Loanee farmers will be insured under ‘compulsory category’ while non-loanee farmers will be insured under ‘voluntary category’, says the official.