30% of area sown under rabi crops gets PM insurance cover

More than 19 million hectares have come under the ambitious PMFBY during the current rabi season

More than 19 million hectares have come under the ambitious Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during the current rabi season, covering around 30 per cent of the total sown area of 64.5 million hectares. 

According to preliminary estimates by insurance companies and state agencies till Friday, the total sum insured for the winter crops has jumped almost 50 per cent to Rs 68,230 crore, compared to the earlier season.

Around 16.4 million farmers have been brought under the ambit of the Prime Minister’s crop insurance and weather-based crop insurance schemes as against 17.5 million farmers in the previous rabi season.

“The number of farmers who have been covered under the PMFBY this rabi season is expected to move up sharply after details from centres come in and final numbers are compiled,” a senior official said.

He said together with the kharif season, around 53 million farmers have been covered under the PMFBY in the first two seasons of 2016-17.

Till the last rabi season, the Centre used to run three different crop insurance schemes, namely National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS), modified National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (MNAIS), and Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme. 

From the 2016 kharif season, these schemes were discontinued, and the PMFBY was launched. The Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme was also retained to give an option to the states.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his 2017-18 Budget speech, had announced that the government planned to increase coverage under the scheme from 30 per cent of the cropped area in 2016-17 to 40 per cent in 2017-18 and to 50 per cent in 2018-19.

He allocated a sum of Rs 9,000 crore for the scheme as against the budget estimate of Rs 5,500 in 2016-17. 

The revised allocation for 2016-17 was raised to Rs 13,240 crore to settle pending arrear claims.

“The sum insured under this Yojana has more than doubled from Rs 69,000 crore in kharif 2015 to Rs 1,41,625 crore in kharif 2016,” Jaitley had told Parliament.

Officials said that of the revised allocation of over Rs 13,240 crore, around Rs 10,371 crore had already been released till February 23, while the remaining was in the process of being released.

The maximum premium that the farmer has to pay under the PMFBY is a flat 1.5 per cent of the sum insured for all kharif crops and 2 per cent for rabi crops. 
 

For horticulture and cotton crops, the premium has been capped at 5 per cent. 

As much as 25 per cent of the likely claim will be settled directly in farmers’ accounts. Non-loanee farmers, such as share-croppers, are also included under the scheme.

The Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC) and 10 other organisations, including ICICI Lombard, HDFC ERGO, IFFCO-Tokio and SBI General Insurance are in the empaneled group of insurers. Farmers get claims against the full sum insured without any reduction.

Key points:

* Initial estimates show 16.4 million farmers opt for insurance under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in this rabi season

* Of the total cropped area of 64.5 million hectares, the total area covered is around 19.4 million hectares

* The total sum insured rose by almost 50 per cent to over Rs 68,000 crore, as compared to the same period last year  

* The government plans to cover 40 per cent of cropped area in 2017-18 and raise it to 50 per cent by 2018-19

* In the 2017-18 Union Budget, the government allocated Rs 9,000 crore for the scheme as against Rs 5,500 crore allocated in 2016-17 (BE)