The Big Win For Framers!! Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh launched an insurance portal for farmers that will help with queries and getting cover. The Mission Mode Project in Agriculture under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP-A) aims to achieve rapid development of agriculture in India through the use of ICT by ensuring timely access to agriculture related information for the farmers of the country.
Twelve clusters of services including Information on inputs; Soil Health; Good Agricultural Practices; Weather; Livestock, Fisheries: Marketing: Scheme Information; Training etc. have been identified and development of Web based applications on various components of these services is being undertaken before their roll out in the States with required local customization.
URGENT NEEDS
- Urgent need for an Insurance Portal enabling speedy processing farmers’ queries on Insurance and also their application for Agricultural Insurance cover has been felt in the wake of recent adverse weather conditions in some parts of the country and losses suffered by farmers due to their non-awareness about insuring their crops.
- Farmers can insure their crops under 3 schemes viz. National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS), Modified National Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) and Weather based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS).
- Information on weather and agro meteorological advisories are generated and disseminated by India Meteorological Department (IMD) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences through their website and also by their 130 Agro Met Field Units (AMFUs) operating across the country.
- To tackle this situation IMD has set up 17 Doppler Radars which feed information into Weather Stations regarding extreme weather situations like thunderstorm, squall, hail etc.
- The mKisan Portal warnings regarding extreme weather conditions are automatically and instantaneously transmitted by SMS to farmers located in affected district/block
