New Delhi: A new Crop Insurance Corporation will be set up to protect small and marginal farmers, the government announced in the Rajya Sabha on March 19.

Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said, "An Agricultural Crops Insurance Corporation will be set up separately to safeguard the interest of small and marginal farmers."

He said that government was keen on protecting small and marginal farmers and in order to help them the Centre had removed movement restrictions on specified foodstuffs including wheat, paddy, rice, coarse grains, sugar, edible oilseeds and edible oils.

He said that the Centre had reduced the basic customs duty on agricultural machinery such as harvesters, machinery for soil preparation, grading and sorting or seeds and fruits and machinery for poultry keeping from 25 per cent to 15 per cent.

PTI