Milan Bishwakarma

July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.

The government has made arrangement to provide 80 percent grant for insuring farmlands used for producing medicinal herbs.

The government made such arrangement after the Insurance Board issued the Agriculture,  Livestock and Medicinal Herb Insurance Directive 2077 on Friday. The directive has come into effect from the first day of the current fiscal year (ie July 17).

The government had announced insurance scheme for medicinal herb farming from the new fiscal year. As per the budget announcement, the Insurance Board issued the new directive after amending the old directive that was in use. The new directive has provision for the government to provide grand for insurance.

The government had been providing 80 percent grant on insurance premium for agriculture farming, which has now been extended to cover medicinal herbs as well, said Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of the board.

“The government has adopted a policy to provide grant on insurance coverage for medicinal herbs from the new fiscal year. As per the policy, we also amended the Agriculture and Livestock Directive to accommodate the new provision,” said Poudel.

“Insurance companies can insure medicinal herbs from July 17 onward. There will also be a provision for grant but such grant is not applicable for the insurance policy prepared by the insurance companies themselves,” he added.

Insurance Board said that the insurance companies can issue short-term insurance policies that do not cover government grant.

The insurance companies will have to mandatorily provide insurance scheme for agriculture, livestock and medicinal herbs in the designated districts. The companies will not be allowed to deny insurance scheme for medicinal herbs in those districts. They will also have to open their branch offices near the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in those districts from now on.

According to the board, this arrangement has made to make the work more convenient.

As far as the livestock insurance is concerned, the insurance rate has to be determined based on the policy, market price, invoice price, and local customs price. In agriculture and herbal insurance, the insurance rate must be established based on the data and cost provided by the insurance document, the relevant office of the Nepal government or the provincial government, or the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

While determining the insurance rate based on the cost of crops, it must be done based on the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. For this, the board has said it will soon prepare the data, including the cost and expenditure in the geographical areas of the seven provinces and the farmers' price of the produced goods. After that, the board says that insurance should be maintained on the same basis.

The directive also mentions that a complaint can be filed with the board if the insurance company does not cooperate in issuing the insurance policy even if the customer provides all the required documents.