Andhra Pradesh and Telangana farmers face multiple challenges in their endeavour of growing food for the state and the nation. Nature’s fury is one of them. Extreme climate events are becoming more intense and frequent. These impact the farmers disproportionately and causes crop loss leading to income shocks.
However, farmers can safeguard their income this Kharif season with Kshema’s first-of-its-kind crop insurance product Sukriti. It offers unparalleled flexibility to a farmer who can choose a combination of one major and one minor peril, most likely to damage their crop, from a predetermined list of nine perils. They can make this selection based on climate, region, location of their farm, and historical pattern. A farmer from coastal Andhra can choose to insure his crop against flood and cyclone which are more common. Similarly, a cultivator from Telangana may choose hailstorm and animal attack.
C.V. Kumar, Chief Underwriting Officer, Kshema General Insurance Limited said, “We understand the farmer and their challenges. I am delighted to say we considered multiple factors while designing Sukriti to ensure the insurance needs of farmers are met and our mission to safeguard them from income shocks is also fulfilled. Sukriti is affordable and customisable. Its unprecedented feature means each farmer can tailor-make it to their requirement and wishes. It gives the option of enhancing the sum insured by paying additional premium too. We have also eased the process for farmers to buy Sukriti and file claims.”
A farmer can download the Kshema app from Google Playstore and buy Sukriti in a few easy steps. The app allows the farmer to select their crop, village, geo tag their farm, check premium amount, sum insured, perform KYC verification to complete the buying process. Kshema has appointed Point of Sale persons (POSPs) to hand-hold those farmers who may need assistance at any stage. A farmer can also call on the dedicated helpline number and schedule an in-person meeting to buy Sukriti to protect their crops from perils.
Meanwhile, the perils covered are cyclone, inundation (not applicable for hydrophilic crops), flood, hailstorm while the minor perils include earthquake, landslide, fire due to lightning, animal attack (monkey, rabbit, wild boar, elephant) and damage due to aircraft.
Apart from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Sukriti is now available in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Karnataka and the Union Territories of Puducherry and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
