The central government has made aadhaar card mandatory for availing crop insurance from the coming Kharif season starting April 1 onwards. The Agriculture Ministry has already issued a directive to all the rural financial institutes in this regard. The government has also informed the farmers availing the crop insurance to provide their aadhaar cards for authentication purpose.
The government has also asked banks to persuade farmers to furnish aadhaar identification at the time of sanction, renewal, disbursement, or inspection. Farmers who do not have an aadhaar number yet, must be enrolled to get one and the state government will have to arrange for the enrolment facilities.
Meanwhile, the farmers without an aadhaar can avail the government crop insurance schemes including the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather-based Crop Insurance (RWBCI). Both PMFBY and RWBCI provide comprehensive insurance cover against crop failure and the premium amount paid by the farmers are affordable.
Farmers can avail these government schemes by furnishing documents including bank passbook, aadhar enrolment slip, voter-id, MNREGA card etc. They can also use their driving license along with a copy of request for aadhaar for identification purpose, but the designated state government officials will verify it before processing their request.
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