Rain cover for Karnataka coffee growers

BANGALORE: The Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) launched its rainfall insurance cover (RIC) for coffee growers in Karnataka on Wednesday. When it was launched first in 2007, RIC had insured around 12,300 planters collecting a total premium of Rs 1.4 crore.

Last year, the company insured almost 8,400 planters with premium collection of Rs 2.4 crore and paid out claims worth Rs 5.3 crore. AIC also announced an alliance with the Department of Posts (DoP) for addressing the rainfall insurance market.

���DoP has as many as 327 offices across the three major coffee growing districts of Karnataka namely Chikmagalur, Hassan and Kodagu. We expect the postmen to help AIC in not just collecting the proposal form as well as premium,��� said M Parshad, CMD of AIC. Karnataka, which accounts for over 75% of the country���s coffee output has as many as 64,431 small coffee growers (owning less than 10 hectares). ���Karnataka DoP is looking at retailing the RIC to 15,000 growers,��� said Karuna Pillai, chief postmaster general, business development, DoP.

���The RIC provides a cover of Rs 30,000 per hectare in case of Arabica and Rs 20,000 in case of Robusta. Typically, the average cost of production works out to about Rs 40,000 to Rs 45,000 per hectares,��� said GV Krishna Rau, chairman of the Coffee Board.