Agricultural Information System fails to streamline farmers’ compensation

Sri Lanka’s Agricultural Information Management System (AIMS) aimed to streamline the process of insurance compensation for crop damages has not been utilised properly up to now, an Auditor General’s recent report observed.

Agreements had been reached with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to formulate the new system to streamline the process of insurance compensation for crop damages.

Although the financial facilities of Rs.20 million had been provided to the board for this purpose and the board had spent Rs.23 million towards this end, the system has not used for the compensation process and therefore the desired objectives have not been achieved, the report revealed.

Farmers related to compensation for crop losses have not been identified and settled, it added.

Insurance certificates had not been given to farmers after reducing the insurance premiums, the report revealed.

An accident insurance premium of Rs.10.77 million was deducted from the compensation amount to be paid to 26,904 farmers for the 2021/22 season.

Although the accident insurance cover should be provided for a period of one year from the date of reduction, the insurance certificates had not been issued to 14,779 farmers even though seven months had passed from the date of reduction.

The AIMS was developed by the Agricultural and Agrarian Insurance Board with technical assistance from the IFC under the Global Index Insurance Facility – a multi donor trust fund.

AIMS is a pioneering step towards modernising the agriculture sector in Sri Lanka which consists of a web and mobile application to manage accurate data and streamline the operational aspects of the agriculture sector by connecting all stakeholders in to one hub, a senior official said.