Farmers’ claims amounting to Rs. 97,719 crore met under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Since the inception of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in 2016-17, against the premium of Rs. 21,614 crore paid by farmers, the claims amounting to Rs. 97,719 crore has been paid to 834.6 lakh farmer applications.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar in Lok Sabha on July 28

It may be noted that the PMFBY is available for all States/UTs and farmers whether loanee, non-loanee, share cropper or tenant farmers on voluntary basis. The concerned State Government notifies the crops and areas under the Scheme. Therefore, benefits of the scheme are available to all those farmers who are growing notified crops in areas/insurance units notified by the concerned State Government.

Based on the experience gained, views of various stakeholders and with a view to ensure better transparency, accountability, timely payment of claims to the farmers and to make the scheme more farmer friendly, the Central Government has comprehensively revised and revamped the Operational Guidelines of the PMFBY with effect from Rabi 2018 and Kharif 2020 respectively to ensure the targeted delivery of benefits of the scheme to the farmers adequately and timely.

Further, National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) has been developed for ensuring better administration, co-ordination, transparency, dissemination of information and delivery of services including direct online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured farmer’s details for better monitoring and to ensure transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmers Bank Account.

To ensure timely payment of claims, use of smartphone/CCE-Agri App for real time transfer of data on national crop insurance portal has been initiated. Crop Insurance app has also been launched, on which farmers can enroll themselves under the scheme, track their crop insurance and get all information about it.

Penalty provisions @12% per annum for late settlement of claims by insurance companies and late release of funds by State Governments have also been stipulated under the scheme.

It is to be noted that the PMFBY is in line with One Nation – One Scheme theme. It incorporates the best features of all previous schemes and at the same time, all previous shortcomings / weaknesses have been removed.

Its objectives are :

1. To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.

2. To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.

3. To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.

4. To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.

Highlights of the scheme

There will be a uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops. In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5%. The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance premium will be paid by the Government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities.

There is no upper limit on Government subsidy. Even if balance premium is 90%, it will be borne by the Government(both the central government and the state government).

Earlier, there was a provision of capping the premium rate which resulted in low claims being paid to farmers. This capping was done to limit Government outgo on the premium subsidy. This capping has now been removed and farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any reduction.

The use of technology will be encouraged to a great extent. Smart phones will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments.

All farmers growing notified crops in a notified area during the season who have insurable interest in the crop are eligible for the insurance. However, to address the demand of farmers, the scheme has been made voluntary for all farmers from Kharif 2020.

Earlier to Kharif 2020, the enrolment under the scheme was compulsory for following categories of farmers:

– Farmers in the notified area who possess a Crop Loan account/KCC account (called as Loanee Farmers) to whom credit limit is sanctioned/renewed for the notified crop during the crop season. and

– Such other farmers whom the Government may decide to include from time to time.

Voluntary coverage may be obtained by all farmers not covered above, including Crop KCC/Crop Loan Account holders whose credit limit is not renewed.

Risks covered under the scheme

Yield Losses (standing crops, on notified area basis). Comprehensive risk insurance is provided to cover yield losses due to non-preventable risks, such as Natural Fire and Lightning, Storm, Hailstorm, Cyclone, Typhoon, Tempest, Hurricane, Tornado. Risks due to Flood, Inundation and Landslide, Drought, Dry spells, Pests/ Diseases also will be covered.

In cases where majority of the insured farmers of a notified area, having intent to sow/plant and incurred expenditure for the purpose, are prevented from sowing/planting the insured crop due to adverse weather conditions, shall be eligible for indemnity claims upto a maximum of 25 per cent of the sum-insured.

In post-harvest losses, coverage will be available up to a maximum period of 14 days from harvesting for those crops which are kept in “cut & spread” condition to dry in the field.

For certain localized problems, Loss / damage resulting from occurrence of identified localized risks like hailstorm, landslide, and Inundation affecting isolated farms in the notified area would also be covered.