Andhra Pradesh has rejoined the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) following a request from the Central Government, Agriculture Minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy has said.
“The Centre has accepted the proposals given by our government and made changes in the guidelines, which facilitated rejoining the crop insurance scheme,” Mr. Govardhan Reddy said while speaking at the 41 st Foundation Day celebrations of the National Bank for Agriculture Rural Development (NABARD) here on Monday.
Mr. Govardhan Reddy said that Andhra Pradesh had opted out of the PMFBY scheme earlier, as the Central government was not willing to extend the scheme to the farmers outside the webland data.
The State government was extending the benefits to the farmers based on e-cropping. Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy recently suggested some changes to make PMFBY beneficial to all farmers.
“Acknowledging the innovative programmes of the State government such as e-cropping, the Centre accepted the proposals and the State rejoined the scheme,” explained the Minister.
Mr. Govardhan Reddy appreciated the significant role played by the NABARD in digitisation of the functioning of cooperative sector in State. “The NABARD has released a credit facility of ₹1600 crore to Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Corporation for the purpose,” he said.
Infra boost
The NABARD has supported infrastructure creation such as construction of additional classrooms in 1,553 government high schools under the Mana Badi-Nadu Nedu scheme. Construction of three medical college-cum-hospitals, Chintalapudi lift irrigation project and etc. by extending a financial support of ₹2,766 crore, disbursal of ₹295 crore to the State government towards share capital contribution of the APCOB and nine DCCBs were some of the other initiatives, said the Minister.
Commissioner for Co-operation and Registrar of Co-operative Societies (CC&RCS) A. Babu, APCOB person-in-charge Jhansi Rani, SBI General Manager Om Narayan Sharma and others spoke on the occasion.
