Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Agro insurance

Our agrarian sector,  vast and fractured into small holdings, ought to have had in place  a well designed farmer friendly scheme for crop insurance . A mai baap  sirkar found  leverage in handing out doles to nurture vote banks and the  ' leakages ' therein ,provided a share of the " political " largesse  to many down the line.
With pragmatically designed insurance schemes in position ,  we could have been richer today in actuarial data ,developed enviable agro- data bank and the agro -intelligence that goes with it , help set a direction to optimize agro-productivity and nodal agro -processing systems as also streamline competitive agro- marketing, as collateral benefits.As for the small and marginal farmers, the government ought to assume onus of the coverage through  comprehensive  insurance .The amount it would defray as premium,would be less than what it could end up paying subsequently as relief / dole.Kautilya (300BC ) had advocated tax exemption for distressed farmers and two millennium is time enough for the government to go in for effective modern remedies .

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