Cattle insurance has a lot of catching up to do, says Policy Ensure co-founder
The insurance industry will have to come together and campaign in a big way to create an awareness like the mutual fund industry so that the rural population, especially farmers, come forward to avail of cattie, tractor and other insurance schemes, said Rahul Mishra, Co-Founder and Dir-ector, Policy Ensure.
“The moment the government intervened in favour of the mutual funds industry expansion took
place. It created a lot of aware
A small town like Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh contributes Rs. 2.3 crore a month. The insurance industry has to do a similar campaign.”, said the co-founder of Policy Ensure, which was launched in 2016. Policy Ensure is a digital insurance “phygital” platform catering to tier 2 and 3 cities and towns.
EXPANSION
Policy Ensure, which is present in Maharashtra, Odisha and Sharkhand, plans to expand to central and southern parts of the country over the next 6-12 months.
The company plans to have a distribution force of 50,000 to one lakh over the next 2-3 years. Policy Ensure does cattle and tractor insurance for farmers, though it is dependent on the insurance companies. “A lot of catching up is needed in the cattle insurance front. It is not happening at the scale it should.” Mishra said.
Only rich farmers insure their belongings. “Small and marginal farmers do not have the money to insure their cattle or other belongings,” he said. Tagging of cattle for insurance is another issue. Also, insurance of cattle or crops by farmers is “highly political” and politicians try to influence the decision on the payouts.
Insurance companies themselves do not encourage covering these risks, though they can be covered and prob lems settled without any is sues using technology such as drones. “Also, today there are not enough veterinarians available to tend to the animals in the case ofcattle insurance,” he said.
