3,694 coffee growers pay premium for rainfall insurance

DHNS

Madikeri, 08 July 2010: About 3,694 coffee growers have paid the premium for the coffee rainfall insurance in Kodagu. June 30 was the last date for paying the premium for the coffee rainfall insurance. Provision was made to submit applications for paying the premium in 27 sub divisions in the district along with the office of Coffee Board junior and senior public relation officer.

A total of 1,726 coffee growers in Napoklu have opted for the scheme, the highest in the district which is followed by Madikeri with 710 coffee growers (excluding 151 at Madikeri Coffee Board DD’s office), Virajpet—518, Somwarpet—333, Shanivarasanthe—203 and Suntikoppa—53.

Kodagu district has around 40,000 coffee growers. Coffee Board had expected that atlest 13,000 growers would pay the premium for the coffee rainfall insurance. However, only 3,694 growers have submitted the application along with the premium.

This clearly shows that less than 10 per cent of the growers have shown interest in the insurance scheme.

Highest number of growers have paid premium in Napoklu region which receives highest rainfall. In fact, the growers in Hassan and Chikmagalur have shown keen interest in the insurance and have come foward to pay the premium.

Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd implementing coffee rainfall insurance scheme.

For the post monsoon insurance, premium can be paid after monsoon, ie, before October 22. July, August and September months have been considered as monsoon period. After monsoon, for the Arabica coffee, the insurance period is November, December and January and for robasta coffee, the time to pay premium is December, January and February. The insurance will be paid for the loss of crop for untimely rain during the period.

Kodagu has 27 rain guage centres. Based on the rains recorded in the centre, Company will pay the insurance for the loss.

For instance, if there was 575 mm rain for seven days, then growers will get Rs 3,000 insurance for one hectare crop loss. If the rain was 700 mm, then the person will get Rs 5,000 insurance per hectare and if the rain was 830 mm, then the grower will get Rs 8,000 insurance for the crop loss. Similarly, during post monsoon period, if there was 100 mm rainfall for three days, then the grower will get Rs 4,000 insurance, if the rainfall was 150 mm, then he will get Rs 6,000 and if the rainfall was 200 mm, then the grower will get Rs 8,000 insurance for the loss.

The exact information on the amount of premium paid by the growers will be known within five to six days, as the officials are still feeding the information on the application to the computer, said Coffee Board Deputy Director N Rangaswamy Reddy.