The Agricultural Knowledge Center, Baitadi, says that the number of people who insure crops here is zero.
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The hailstorm that accompanied the rain on Tuesday caused major damage to corn and other vegetable crops in Melauli Municipality, Shivnath and Pancheshwor Rural Municipality of the district. Despite the rain and windstorm throughout the district, there was no hailstorm anywhere except Melauli, Shivnath and Pancheshwor, according to the Agricultural Knowledge Center Baitadi.
Corn has sprouted 4 stalks on the flat land where the hailstorm occurred and 8 stalks on the fields where it hit. The hailstorm that accompanied the rain covered the fields like snow, causing the corn to break completely, while the vegetable crops have also been severely damaged, according to farmers.
The local level does not have any data on the damage to vegetables and crops not only this year but every year, nor does the Agricultural Knowledge Center have any records of it. Farmers, however, are not receiving compensation from anywhere. They do not know that they have to insure the crops they have planted and that they will receive compensation from it.
The Melauli Municipality, however, has asked farmers for details of hail damage this year, so they hope they will provide some compensation, said farmer Jantara Bhatta.
Even though the government has introduced a policy to provide crop insurance, it has not been implemented yet, she said. ‘Farmers have not been made aware of this,’ she said. ‘Even though the local level has provided subsidies to farmers on vegetables and various indigenous crops, it has not conducted public awareness programs related to insurance.’
Most farmers who grow vegetables commercially also do not have knowledge about crop insurance. Even farmers who have knowledge do not take out crop insurance because there is no insurance organization in Baitadi that provides easy insurance and because the program is short-term, they consider it a cumbersome process, said Hari Joshi, head of the Agricultural Knowledge Center, Baitadi. ‘We hold a seminar every year to provide information on crop insurance. They say they will insure all crops,’ he said, ‘but later on, not a single one is found to have done so.’
He said that farmers are not attracted to crop insurance because the compensation is low. Madhav Awasthi of Nepal Insurance said that even though a private company is appointed for insurance, farmers have not come to get insurance. No farmer agrees to insure crops, but farmers are attracted to livestock insurance, he said.
‘Insurance of food crops is based on the investment made in farming,’ he said, ‘Since the damage occurs in production, farmers are not attracted to it.’ According to the agricultural insurance policy, compensation is provided only on the basis of the calculation of seeds, fertilizers and manpower used in farming. Farmer Bhatta said that there is no attraction to insurance here because the insurance amount is low.
Although only 25,700 hectares of the 31,485 hectares of cultivable land in Baitadi is cultivated, the number of crop insurance policies in the district is zero, according to the Agricultural Knowledge Center, Baitadi.
