November 16: The Insurance Board has introduced coffee farming insurance policy allowing coffee farmers to insure their coffee products.

The board has implemented the insurance policy in line with the Crop and Livestock Insurance Directive-2069. The policy has come into effect from Monday, November 15.

The Insurance Board has been coming up with policies under agriculture and animal husbandry. Rajuraman Poudel, managing director of the board, said that the new policy has been introduced to insure coffee farming. He said that the insurance policy has been prepared to cover most of the risks in coffee farming.

This insurance policy covers the damage caused by fire, hurricane, storm, flood, inundation, hailstorm, snowfall, frost, drought, lightning, landslide, earthquake, natural calamity, insects and other diseases. In addition, this insurance policy provides accidental insurance of Rs 200,000 to coffee farmers.

However, the insurance will not cover the indirect loss in coffee farming and the damage caused by the authorized body. Insurance companies are not liable to pay for the losses caused by radiation, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, war or war-like conditions. Likewise, partial insurance is not available for coffee planted in the same area. The policy holder needs to insure the entire coffee farming area in order to avail the service.

The sum of insured amount of the entire farm will be calculated based on the number of coffee plants, price per plant and production cost. The premium will be determined at the rate of five percent of the assured amount. However, the insurance premium can be paid by deducting the premium subsidy provided by the government. Currently, the government provides 80 percent subsidy in agricultural insurance. Accordingly, the farmers are required to pay 20 percent insurance premium. For additional accidental insurance service, an extra premium of Rs 500 has to be paid.

The insured amount of coffee farming should be verified by the National Tea and Coffee Development Board of the concerned district and other authorized bodies. To receive the insurance service, farmers have to cultivate coffee in accordance with the prescribed technical criteria.

In case of any damage to the coffee farming, the concerned farmer has to inform the insurance company through any medium within three days. After that, the claim process will move forward.

The company should send a loss evaluator within seven days after receiving the claim paper from the policy holder. After that, the claim has to be settled by completing the necessary processes. The company must settle the claim within 35 days upon receiving the evaluation report.