Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched on 18th February 2016. It’s a flagship scheme of the Government of India which aims to provide financial support to farmers suffering crop loss or damage arising out of natural calamities.
The scheme was revamped in 2020 enabling voluntary participation of the farmers. It also made it convenient for the farmer to report crop loss within 72 hours of the occurrence of any event – through Crop Insurance App, CSC Centre or the nearest agriculture officer, with claim benefits transferred electronically into the bank accounts of the eligible farmer.
Insurance companies in PMFBY charge an actuarial premium rate without any ceiling. However, farmers have to pay a fixed percentage of the sum insured as a premium. The difference between the actuarial premium rate and the premium rate paid by farmers, i.e., premium subsidy, is equally shared between the local government and central governments. Despite having a fixed rate of premium for farmers, the premium amount paid by farmers and premium subsidy increases with an increase in the sum insured of farmers. The premium subsidy also increases when total insured farmers, total area insured, and the number of crops notified by the states/UTs for crop insurance increase.
Also, there is Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) which aims to mitigate the hardship of the insured farmers against the likelihood of financial loss on account of anticipated crop loss resulting from adverse weather conditions relating to rainfall, temperature, wind, humidity etc. RWBCIS uses weather parameters as “proxy‟ for crop yields in compensating the cultivators for deemed crop losses.
Both these schemes were approved at a meeting of State Level Coordination Committee on Crop Insurance (SLCCCI), chaired by the Chief Secretary, in the J&K.
The committee also approved the modus operandi to be adopted for the successful implementation of these Schemes in the J&K.
The Scheme would cover Paddy, Maize, Oilseeds, Wheat, Apple, Saffron, Mango and Litchi crops.
While the Chief Secretary emphasized the need for providing insurance cover to the farmers against crop loss due to various weather vagaries, there is need to address various issues, which cropped in other States or UTs, beforehand.
First and foremost the government needs to give a widespread circulation about the scheme benefits and guide the farmers about manner in which and under what circumstances they can avail it.
