Farmers at a loss for lack of insurance for banana plantation

Chandrapur (Rautahat), March 18: Farmers in Rautahat are suffering losses due to the lack of insurance for banana cultivation. Farmers here have been affected by natural disasters because there is no insurance for banana farming in various local units of the district.

Severe damage has occurred in Chandrapur Municipality due to the violent storm that lashed the district on Monday evening. In particular, the banana plantations worth around Rs 15 million in Chandrapur-3 were completely destroyed, leaving farmers in financial distress.

The storm completely destroyed banana plantations in villages such as Paurai of Chandrapur-1, Judibela of Chandrapur-2, Gaidatar of Ward No. 3, and Chandranigahapur of Ward No. 4. 

Particularly, Gaidatar village of Chandrapur-3 is known as the main area for banana production. Most of the farmers here are into commercial banana farming.

Local farmer Deepak Gautam said that the storm that lashed the district on Monday destroyed thousands of banana plants, wiping out a year's worth of hard work in an instant.

Farmers have reached on the verge of financial collapse, having lost all their investment, labour and time. Banana farmers face natural disasters every year.

Gautam complained that banana cultivation is often destroyed by storms, diseases, and occasionally by wild animal attacks, but without insurance, farmers have to bear all the losses.

He has been cultivating bananas on about seven bighas of land.

"The number of farmers commercially growing bananas in this area has increased over the years. We have made repeated requests for insurance coverage to banana plantations to the Chandrapur Municipality, but our requests have fallen on deaf ears," he said.

Farmer Gautam rued that their request to the Mayor of Chandrapur Municipality Sanjay Kumar Kafle and various insurance companies for insurance was ignored.

In Rautahat, banana cultivation has been done on over 400 bighas of land and bananas worth more than Rs 30 million have been damaged due to the storm.

Similarly, Ramesh Ghimire, a farmer from Chandrapur-3, said that if there was insurance for banana farming, farmers' investments would be protected. He mentioned that without insurance, farmers here are at a loss. Ghimire stated that at present, insurance for every crop has become essential.

He complained that the insurance company has been reluctant to insure banana farming citing high risk. This has caused farmers to face additional problems every year when natural disasters damage the farmers' crops.

Kafle, the mayor of Chandrapur Municipality, said the municipality is ready to provide all kinds of support for crop insurance for farmers.

"Insurance is very necessary for the farmers' crops. The Municipality is ready to provide any kind of assistance for facilitating for insurance to the farmers," he reiterated. (RSS)