Farmers demand insurance cover to offset losses

Different factors cause 40% damage to crops every year.

FAISALABAD: In a bid to save crops from effects of climate change, farmers are seeking crop insurance schemes that can cover losses suffered during rains and floods, but unfortunately not much is offered to them in this regard.

According to the farmers, government and private insurance companies are not offering insurance cover against crops and the facility is only available to those growers who take loans from banks.

Talking to The Express Tribune, farmers say crop insurance can cover losses caused by heavy rains, hailstorm, floods, diseases and other types of damages to crops. Private insurance schemes can save the farmers, who are already burdened with high input costs, from heavy losses, they say.

“Crop insurance is very limited and government and private insurance companies provide insurance cover to only those who take bank loans for their crops. These institutions should insure the individual farmers,” said Malik Arshad, a landlord.

He said the country could not prosper without supporting the agricultural economy. “Crop insurance is the only way to protect farmers from all types of calamities.”

“The government is not sincere about introducing new crop protection plans for the agricultural sector. For many years, the sector has been at the mercy of banks,” said another farmer.

According to experts, 40 per cent of crops are damaged every year by weather vagaries and other factors. Though it is not possible to cope with natural calamities, proper planning, including crop insurance, can reduce the impact of losses, they say.

“Agricultural insurance schemes, which can cover losses suffered by farmers, are restricted to big landlords only,” said Malik Hafeez, Executive Officer of National Insurance Company Limited. “There is no such crop insurance scheme for individual and small farmers.”

“Private insurance firms are offering crop insurance to only those who take loans from banks for crops,” said Sajjad Tanveer, an insurance industry expert.

Crop insurance had encouraged banks to expand loan coverage to farms and it was time for policymakers and insurance companies to start providing insurance cover to farmers for their crops, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2012.