Villagers across Karnataka deciding to shut out strangers has led to a serious concern among officials who are yet to complete the procedure of estimating crop output and insuring farmers against any eventuality.
Many ground-level officials involved in the process in Chitradurga and Ballari districts have reported to their higher-ups that the villages where crop cutting (CC) exercise has to be taken up had been fenced to keep away “outsiders”, including officials, because of the COVID-19 threat.
CC is a scientific way to estimate production through ground estimates of samples collected from the gram panchayat level based on seed quality, fertilizer applied, and irrigation method, among other things. The average yield is calculated and insurance companies use this data on yield per acre to settle claims. “The CC exercise cannot be done later if the crop is harvested or damaged,” a source said.
Sources in the Directorate of Economics and Statistics said they have been appealing to farmers to let officials conduct CC for their own good. “If crop cutting is not allowed at the gram panchayat level, then the next higher unit will be considered for settling insurance claims, and most often farmers will lose their claim if a higher unit is kept for insurance claim consideration,” a senior official told The Hindu. The official said that if villagers continue to insist on officials not conducting CC, they have been asked to submit a report.
According to the official, of the 87,000 mandatory CC exercises across Karnataka for the kharif season, about 32 are yet to be done. The problem, however, is with the rabi crop, where out of 42,216 exercises, over 7,000 are pending. For the summer crop, 10,300 CC exercises are planned.
“Unless officials visit the field, check if farmers are insured and compare the ground situation with the Agriculture Department survey, it cannot be validated,” a source said. Because of a goof-up in 2016, when a local official in Haveri, without visiting the spot, randomly marked the CC outcome, 1,300 farmers lost about ₹1.3 crore in insurance claim.
Officials also fear that in the current scenario, primary-level workers could end up fabricating numbers, which will not only upset the State’s projection but will also hit farmers hard in case of crop failure.
