Kolkata: The state government has disbursed Rs 351 crore under Bangla Sasya Bima (BSB) to over 9 lakh farmers whose paddy cultivation were affected by natural calamities during the Kharif season last year.
Cyclone Dana, which made landfall on the Odisha coast in October-end last year, had affected paddy cultivation in several south Bengal districts due to heavy rainfall. Days prior to the cyclone, the Damodar Valley Corporation had allegedly released water inundating parts of Howrah, Hooghly and East Burdwan.
“We had sought applications from the farmers who had incurred losses.
On receipt of the same, we used satellite images of ISRO for determining the extent of loss of crop damage and then started disbursement under BSB,” said an Agriculture department official. Chief Secretary Manoj Pant recently held a meeting at Nabanna taking stock of the different projects. He was informed of the enrollment of farmers under BSB for the Rabi and Boro season. Nearly 72 lakh farmers were enrolled, among whom over 12.13 lakh are potato farmers. This is the first time when farmers associated with potato and sugarcane cultivation were waived of any premium under BSB.
BSB introduced in 2019 is the state‘s unique crop insurance scheme where the state government pays the entire premium for all crops.
Farmers involved in potato and sugarcane cultivation had to pay a small amount as premium. However, with effect from this Rabi and Boro season, that has been waived.
This has come into effect from the 2024-25 Rabi and Boro season.
Budget allocation for BSB has been raised to Rs 1313. 18 crore for 2025-26 fiscal from Rs 1125 crore in 2024-25 FY. Since inception, over 1.12 crore farmers have received Rs 3562 crores under BSB.