Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme: Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme (PM-FBY) has completed five years. On completion of five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the beneficiaries of the scheme. He said, ‘Today, 5 years of PM Crop Insurance Scheme has been completed to provide protection to the food providers of the country from the wrath of nature. Under this scheme, crores of farmers have benefited due to increased coverage of losses and reduced risk. My heartiest congratulations to all its beneficiaries.
What is PM-FBY?
This scheme was introduced with the aim of providing insurance protection to the agricultural crops in the country due to natural calamities and reducing the risk of farmers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government implemented this scheme after reviewing all the earlier crop insurance schemes. In this, the insurance cover per hectare crop was increased. In order to minimize the premium of the farmers, a subsidy was made on the insurance premium. Apart from this, many initiatives were also taken for claim settlement etc.
to to make the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme transparent. The scheme was developed in line with the Digital India Mission. From registration of farmers to claims settlement, arrangements were made online. From Kharif 2017, Aadhaar was made mandatory to avail the scheme.
The scheme ensured the use of drones and other technology for speedy settlement of insurance claims. This accelerated the system of assessing losses. Survey of farms became easier under local risk cover.
Under PM-FBY, the premium for insurance cover for farmers was kept to a minimum. This is equal to two percent of the sum assured for Kharif crops and one and half percent for Rabi crops. In addition, for both commercial and horticultural crops in both the cropping season, the sum insured is equal to five percent. The government pays the remaining premium amount as subsidy. The share of the Center and the state in it is 50-50 percent, while for the northeastern states, this share is 90 and 10 percent respectively.
In PM-FBY, insurance cover has been provided keeping in mind the conditions from pre-sowing to post-harvest. Insurance has been provided even if the farmer is unable to sow, consider hail, landslide and waterlogging as a local disaster and the crop remains in the field for 14 days after harvest.
According to PTI news, about 5.5 crore farmers get applications under the scheme on an annual basis. Under this, claims worth Rs 90,000 crore have been settled so far. About 70 lakh farmers also benefited during the Kovid-19 lockdown. During this period, the amount of claims worth Rs 8741.30 crore was sent directly to the beneficiaries account.
