BHUBANESWAR, 4 June 2021: The State government has targeted to cover 12.5 lakh hectares of agricultural land under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in the Kharif 2021 to provide security cover to farmers against possible crop loss due to the vagaries of nature.

With 31 July 2021, being the cut-off date for online enrolment for crop insurance with the NCIP portal, common service centres (CSC), insurance companies, and banks, the State government has requested all the loanee and non-loanee farmers to complete the formality within the specified time, according to media reports.

Notified crops under the insurance scheme

Eight notified crops - paddy, groundnut, cotton, turmeric, ginger, red gram, maize, and ragi - will be covered under the crop insurance scheme for the Kharif season while nine crops - paddy, green gram, block gram, groundnut, mustard, sunflower, potato, onion, and sugarcane - have been notified for the insurance coverage for rabi season.

Two IEC vans flagged off to engage farmers on the scheme

Launching the Crop Insurance Awareness Campaign for PMFBY during the Crop Insurance Week on 1 July 2021, Agriculture Minister Arun Sahoo flagged off two IEC vans which will continue to engage the farmers on the PMFBY throughout the crop insurance week. The two vehicles will travel in 10 backward blocks in 10 aspirational districts of the State where crop insurance penetration is low.

Image credit: nationalgeographic.org