During six years of its implementation, farmers paid a premium of ₹25,252 crore and received claims amounting to ₹1,30,015 crore (as of 3rd February 2023).

Chandigarh (ABC Live): The Crop Insurance in India is a gray area in absence of awareness about Crop Insurance among farmers and its implementation.

The ABC Research team refers a report published by the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) having mandate for recommending to the government Price Policy every year, separately for five groups of commodities namely Kharif crops, Rabi crops, Sugarcane, Raw Jute and Copra.

The CACP report on the Crop insurance says as under:

The Crop insurance is an important tool for risk management and helps in mitigating financial risks associated with crop failure due to natural calamities such as floods, droughts, hailstorm, pests and diseases, etc. 

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY), launched in 2016, is currently the largest crop insurance scheme in the world in terms of farmer enrolments and the third largest in terms of the premium.

During six years of its implementation, farmers paid a premium of ₹25,252 crore and received claims amounting to ₹1,30,015 crore (as of 3 rd February 2023). 

The Scheme was made optional for all farmers including loanee farmers from kharif 2020 and the share of non-loanee farmers was about 27 percent during the last three kharif seasons. 

As per NSS Report No. 587: “Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India, 2019 (NSS 77th Round)’, more than 40 percent farmers growing major kharif crops, paddy, maize, bajra, ragi, urad, groundnut and soybean, were not aware about crop insurance.