As the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) enters the seventh year of implementation with the upcoming Kharif season, the government said it will launch a doorstep distribution drive to deliver crop insurance policies to farmers.

The doorstep campaign ‘Meri Policy Mere Hath’ aims to ensure all farmers are well aware and equipped with all information on their policies, land records, the process of claim and grievance redressal under the PMFBY.

The doorstep campaign will be launched in all implementing states in the upcoming Kharif season beginning June.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

• Keeping in view the risks involved in agriculture and to insure the farming community against various risks, the ministry of agriculture & farmers’ welfare introduced a crop insurance scheme in 1985 — Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme (CCIS). Thereafter, the government brought improvements in the erstwhile schemes from time to time based on the experience gained and views of the stakeholders, states, farming community, etc. 

• The insurance schemes currently under implementation are the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS).

• Crop insurance aims to protect the farmer against financial losses due to uncertainties that may arise from crop failures/losses arising from named or all unforeseen perils beyond their control.

• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), launched on January 13, 2016, aims to provide a comprehensive risk solution to farmers at the lowest uniform premium across the country. 

• It was launched to support production in agriculture by providing an affordable crop insurance product to ensure comprehensive risk cover for crops of farmers against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest stage. 

• The scheme also aims to cover the risk of crop yield losses of insured farmers against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest and to provide adequate claim amount and timely settlement of claims. 

• Under PMFBY, a uniform maximum premium of only 2 per cent of the sum insured is paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all Rabi crops. In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the maximum premium to be paid by farmers is upto 5 per cent. 

• The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and the balance of actuarial premium is being borne by the government, to be shared equally by the state & central government  to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities. In Northeast states, the subsidy sharing pattern between central and state government is 90:10.

• Earlier, there was a provision of capping the premium rate which resulted in low claims being paid to farmers. This capping in earlier schemes has now been removed.

• In PMFBY farmers will get a claim against full sum insured without any reduction.

Objectives of the scheme:

• Providing financial support to farmers suffering crop loss/damage arising out of unforeseen events.

• Stabilising the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.

• Encouraging farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.

• Ensuring credit worthiness of the farmers, crop diversification and enhancing growth and competitiveness of the agriculture sector.

Other important points:

• Over 36 crore farmer applications have been insured under the PMFBY, with over Rs 1,07,059 crore of claims have already been paid under the scheme as of February 4, this year.

• The crop insurance scheme has been able to provide financial assistance to the most vulnerable farmers as around 85 per cent of the farmers enrolled with the scheme are small and marginal farmers.

• PMFBY was revamped in 2020 enabling voluntary participation of farmers.

• It has also been made 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 benefit transferred electronically into the bank accounts of the eligible farmer.

• Integration of land records with the PMFBY’s National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP), Crop Insurance mobile app for easy enrollment of farmers, remittance of farmer premium through NCIP, a subsidy release module and a claim release module through NCIP are some of the key features of the scheme.

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