Weather-based insurance: Meagre compensations to areca farmers in Shivamogga push growers, elected representatives, and officers to blame defunct weather stations

The defunct weather stations at gram panchayats cost areca growers at Shivamogga district heavily, as a majority of them received a meagre sum as compensation for the loss of crops under the weather-based insurance scheme.

Growers, elected representatives, and officers in the district argue that lapses in data collection impacted the calculation of the compensation. In the year 2024-25, each farmer paid ₹6,400 per hectare as a premium. The total sum assured per hectare was ₹1.28 lakh, and the total premium is 30% of the sum assured.

The Union government, State government, and the farmer contributed to the premium. While the farmer paid 5%, the Centre and State contributed 12.5% each. The total premium paid per hectare was ₹38,400, with the farmers’ contribution alone at ₹26 crore. Considering the weather conditions, the total payout to growers in the district was ₹113 crore. In the previous year (2023-24), the farmers’ contribution was ₹21 crore, and the total payout was ₹157 crore, which the growers were happy with.

Zero in two panchayats

The compensation received by growers for the year 2024-25 ranged from zero to ₹89,000 per hectare. In two gram panchayats — Kudumallige in Tirthahalli taluk and Marutipura in Hosanagar taluk — the payout was zero. Growers in Honnethal of Tirthahalli taluk received the maximum, that is, ₹89,000. A majority of growers received a few hundred rupees as compensation. Madhu Bangarappa, Minister for School Education, who is also in-charge Minister of the district, held a meeting on the issue with officers at Shivamogga on December 5.

Gurudatta Hegde, Deputy Commissioner, A.B. Sanjay, Joint Director of Horticulture, and others brought to the notice of the Minister that many weather stations were not functioning properly. The district has about 280 stations, which are maintained by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre. The Deputy Commissioner has written to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre seeking data on the defunct stations.

Detailed report

The compensation is calculated considering data related to rainfall, temperature, and humidity from the respective automatic weather stations. If a weather station is not functioning, the insurance company takes the reading of the nearest station, identified as the backup station. The Minister and officers felt that relying on the readings of another station would not help in assessing the actual loss. “In Malnad region, the rate of rainfall could be varied within a gram panchayat’s limits. If the backup station is quite far from a panchayat, the readings could be misleading, resulting in wrong calculations,” he observed.

The Minister directed the Deputy Commissioner and other officers to prepare a detailed report on the issue, stating that he would take it up with the Development Commissioner and the Revenue Minister. “Farmers should get their dues. We will work out ways to help farmers who suffered losses owing to the heavy rains last year. And we will ensure the same is not repeated with the current year’s assessment,” he added.

B.Y. Raghavendra, Shivamogga MP, raised the issue in parliament on December 3. Earlier, speaking to press persons in Shivamogga before leaving for the parliament session, he said the compensation the growers received was negligible, considering the loss they suffered last year (2024-25). The district should have gotten at least another ₹100 crore, he stated.