Maharashtra farmer receives Rs 1.76 as compensation for crop damages under Pradhan Mantri scheme

Farmers crops often get ruined due to flood or drought. Compensation is also given by the government if the crop is affected by flood, to deal with these situations, the government is running a scheme. A farmer Krushna Raut (32), who claimed crop loss insurance under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) after the rains in September devastated his two-acre farm in Dhasala village of Maharashtra's Parbhani district, received Rs 1.76 as crop damage.

He had spent Rs 25,000 to sow soybean, tur dal and gram. Two other farmers got Rs 14.21 and Rs 37.31 as compensation.

Raut had paid an insurance premium of Rs 455 and another Rs 200 later for crop-loss assessment, against which he had been expecting to be sanctioned a compensation of around Rs 27,000 an acre. The amount I received is a joke, he said.

According to a report of TOI, He isn't the only one to have received a pittance as compensation under the central scheme. Farmer Gajanan Chavan said, Of the four crops I sowed on three acres of land, I got Rs 14.21 as compensation for damage to one, Rs 1,200 for another and nothing for the remaining two. I had paid over Rs 1,800 as premium." Gajanan's brother Vikram said he kept calling the insurer's helpline, but received no response.

Farmer Pandurang Kadam, a 33-year-old science postgraduate, received Rs 37.31 as compensation for one crop and Rs 327 for another.