National Crop Insurance Program being Implemented from Current Rabi Season

A new central sector scheme, ‘National Crop Insurance Programme’ (NCIP) has been introduced by merging Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS), Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) and Coconut Palm Insurance Scheme (CPIS) throughout the country from Rabi 2013-14.

Administrative Approval for implementing NCIP from Rabi 2013-14 has been issued on 1^st November, 2013.

NCIP has been introduced to provide financial support to the farmers for losses in their crop yield, to help in maintaining flow of agricultural credit, to encourage farmers to adopt progressive farming practices and higher technology in Agriculture and thereby, to help in maintaining production, employment & economic growth. Besides, farmers are also benefitted due to: -

·         coverage of indemnity for prevented sowing/planting risk and post harvest losses (due to cyclone in coastal areas),

·         higher level of indemnity and more proficient basis for calculation of threshold yield,

·         faster settlement of claims due to provision for making  50% advance of likely claims under MNAIS component for immediate relief to the farmers, etc.

·         To encourage the State Governments to implement the scheme at village/ village panchayat level, a provision to reimburse 50% of incremental expenses on Crop Cutting Experiments has been made in the scheme.

Unit area of insurance has been reduced to the village/village panchayat level in the restructured scheme of ‘National Crop Insurance Program’ (NCIP). 

Continued efforts are made to create awareness about crop insurance schemes by the implementing agencies in coordination with implementing states.   The salient activities under awareness campaign, involve the publicity of features & benefits of the scheme through advertisements in leading National/local News Papers, telecast through audio-visual media, distribution of pamphlets, participation in agriculture fairs / mela / gosti , organization of workshops/ trainings and SMS through Kisan Portal, etc.

Source: Ministry of Agriculture

Steps to Support Small & Marginal Farmers

As per Agriculture Census 2010-11, land holdings of less than two hectare, cultivated by small and marginal farmers (many of whom are below poverty line), constitute about 85% of total land holdings in India. Considering the importance of this segment in agriculture sector, due attention has been given to it in formulation and implementation of various schemes/programmes of the Government. Government is taking all possible steps for the welfare of the farming community and to make agriculture sector an attraction vocation. Plan outlay of Centre for Agriculture for XII Plan period has been substantially increased to Rs.1,34,746 crore as against Rs.61,527.90 crore during XI Plan period. The Department of Agriculture & Cooperation has budget provision of Rs.21,609 crore for the year 2013-14. During the year 2011-12 and 2012-13, the budget provisions were Rs.17,122 crore and Rs.20208 crore, respectively. 

Important schemes/programmes being implemented for the welfare of farmers, and particularly the small and marginal ones, are Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Food Security Mission, Integrated Scheme for Farmers’ Income Security (including covering risks through insurance cover), Price Support Scheme (PSS), Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), National Horticulture Mission, Funding of Farmer Producer’s Organisations, Self Help Groups of Small & Marginal Farmers for achieving benefits of economies of scale, Augmentation of Extension Services, Crop diversification etc. Small and marginal farmers are especially encouraged to form aggregates to avail the benefits of economies of scale in sourcing the inputs and for marketing their produce. Farmers are being provided inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, farm machinery and implements etc. at subsidized rates. Farmers are also provided Institutional Credit at concessional interest rate of 4% on farm loans provided they repay their loan in time. 

Government has approved, in principle, the restructuring of the schemes/programmes into five Missions, five Centrally Sponsored Schemes and one State plan Scheme for implementation from the year 2014-15 in order to have focused approach and to avoid overlap. 

Source: Ministry of Agriculture

Indian Pesticide Market to Reach INR 229,800 million by FY 2018

According to the report 'India Pesticides Industry Analysis to 2018,' Indian Pesticide market is projected to reach INR 229,800 million with a CAGR of 14.7% from FY 2014-FY 2018.

The Indian crop protection market is expected to witness a growth in its consumption owing to factors such as growing farmer awareness, farmers prosperity, inclining demand for organic food, increased focus on R&D, expansion of the contract farming and GDP growth.

According to the report, several factors including rising population, inflating agricultural commodity prices, favourable rain pattern, increased adoption of new technologies and growing farmer preference towards high-value and high-quality products and others are some of the factors expected to drive the industry's growth in the future.

Pesticides industry in India has been broadly segmented into six categories including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, bio-pesticides, plant growth regulators and rodenticides. Of the aforementioned, insecticides commanded the highest share of around 45% in the overall pesticides market revenue. In spite of leading the market, the segment's market share has observed a steady decline over the last few years. Followed by the insecticides, the market share of herbicides was recorded to be the second highest. Herbicide is a swiftly growing sector in the overall pesticides market. Bio-pesticide was observed another important segment has an immense potential for growth in the years ahead primarily owing to government support and increasing awareness about use of non-toxic, environment friendly pesticides in the country.

The pesticides consumption in India has been unevenly spread across various regions. While the country's northern region forms majority of the pesticides consumption, the eastern and north eastern region constitute the lowest share. Some of the major pesticides consuming states in India include Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerela and Tamil Nadu. 

Indian crop protection industry is capital intensive and highly regulated industry. The industry has been mainly composed of technical grade manufacturers and formulators. The technical grade producers usually sell premium quality chemicals in the bulk to the formulators, who then prepare formulations by mixing the carriers, solvents, surface active agents and other relevant compounds. 

Source: Agropages (http://news.agropages.com/News/NewsDetail---11037.htm)