Government
of India has launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana ( PMFBY) with simplified
provisions making them more farmer friendly. The scheme provides the farmers
maximum financial protection against non-preventable natural risks.
Simplification
of the Scheme
Following
review of erstwhile crop insurance schemes PMFBY has been formulated, with
simplified provisions and reduced premium for farmers which has resulted in both
increased awareness among farmers and increase in coverage of area and crops.
Reduction
in Premium
The
farmers premium has been reduced for all food and oilseeds crops and kept at
a maximum of 1.5% for Rabi, 2% for Kharif and 5% for annual horticultural/commercial
crops.
Increased
coverage :
·
In 2016-17, 30% of Gross Cropped Area
(GCA) has been covered in comParison to 23% in 2015-16.
·
In 2016-17, a total of 5.74 crore
farmers were covered, including 1.35 crore non-loanees. Thus, there was an
increase of 0.89 crore in total coverage of farmers, an enhancement of 18.23%
in comparison to the previous year. Coverage of non-loanees has increased by
123.50%.
·
During 2016-17, 518.11 lakh ha. area was
insured which is 56.56 lakh ha. more than in the previous year, an enhancement
of 10.78%.
·
In 2016-17, coverage of non-loanee
farmers is up from 5% to 22.5% of total farmers insured.
Increase
in sum insured
·
Due to capping of premium under
erstwhile schemes, the sum insured was consequentially reduced, as a result of
which the farmers were denied the expected benefits and complete compensation
for their crop loss. However, under PMFBY, in order to provide maximum risk
coverage to farmers, sum insured has been equated to Scale of finance (SOF).
As a result the farmers now get timely settlement of claims for entire sum
insured, without any deduction and are being compensated for entire crop loss.
·
In 2016-17, the total area covered has
been insured for a sum of Rs. 204779 crore, which is 78.14% more than that of
Rs. 114951.81 crore in 2015-16.
·
Sum insured per ha. in Kharif 2015 was
Rs. 20498 which increased to Rs. 34574 in Kharif 2016 and in Rabi 2015-16 was
Rs. 8733 which increased to Rs. 39358 in Rabi 2016-17.
Increase
in Risk Coverage
Comprehensive
coverage has been provided against non-preventable natural risks from
pre-sowing to post-harvest losses. In addition, losses due to localised risks
are estimated at the individual farm level for claim settlement.
·
.Coverage of Losses due to Prevented
Sowing : In 2016-17, in Tamil Nadu, claims worth Rs. 27.61 crore (upto 25%
of sum insured) were settled due to prevented sowing on account of inclement
weather.
·
25% advance relief due to mid-season
adversity : In 2016-17, due to adverse climatic
conditions such as floods, drought spell, severe drought, unseasonal rains etc.,
on account payments were made to the tune of Rs. 31.69 crore in Uttar Pradesh,
Rs. 11 crore in Chhatisgarh, Rs. 11.19 crore in Maharashtra and Rs. 9.42 crore
in Madhya Pradesh.
·
Coverage of localised claims : In
2016-17, due to localised calamities such as hailstorm, inundation and
landslides, claims worth Rs. 0.11 crore in Andhra Pradesh, Rs. 0.09 crore in
Chhatisgarh, Rs. 4.04 crore in Haryana, Rs. 1.55 crore in Maharashtra, Rs. 0.32
crore in Rajasthan and Rs. 0.80 crore in Uttar Pradesh were settled expeditiously
before conduct of Crop Cutting Experiments.
·
Coverage of Post-Harvest Losses : In
2016-17, claims on this account worth Rs. 0.11 crore in Andhra Pradesh, Rs.
0.66 crore in Manipur and Rs. 16.51 crore in Rajasthan were settled.
Use of Improved technology
Under erstwhile crop insurance schemes due to non-
adoption of improved Technology there was considerable delay in settlement of
claims. Under the new scheme, the States are required to give Crop Cutting
Experiment (CCE) data to insurance companies within one month of harvest and
the companies have to settle the claims within three weeks of receiving the CCE
data. Under earlier schemes, estimation of yield data was done without using
technology through manual means, due to which there was huge delay in obtaining
CCE data. Due to this the claim settlement, on an average took six months to
one year. To eliminate this delay and to promote transparency, it has been made
mandatory to use Smartphones/CCE Agri App for capture/transmission of yield
data to the crop insurance portal. Due to this Innovation, subsequent to
harvest of Kharif crops between November to December 2016, CCE data could be
obtained from end December onward and by January end settlement of claims had been
initiated.
From the first season itself States like Bihar,
Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha sent the complete yield data through CCE
Agri App and others like Gujarat, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh did it partially. For Kharif 2016, apart from
certain areas where there is a dispute regarding yield data between States and
insurance companies, for remaining State the claims have already been
calculated.
·
In order to promote transparency and
timeliness a Central Crop Insurance Portal has been developed which integrates
farmers and other stakeholders and also provides for online registration of
farmers.
·
All possible farmer friendly
administrative initiatives and technology have been put in place to increase
the coverage of non-laonee farmers including sharecroppers. For example Common
Service (CSC) has been engaged to facilitate enrolment of non-loanee farmers
from Kharif 2017.
·
Approximately 12 lakh farmers have registered
online for crop insurance during Kharif 2017.
·
Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has been
initiated to facilitate transmission of claims amount directly to the farmers
account.
·
Provision has been made for use of
Advanced Technology such as drone, remote sensing etc. for promoting
transparency and immediate settlement of insurance claims.
Claim Settlement
·
In 2016-17 (Kharif 2016 and Rabi
2016-17), which was a good monsoon year, against the gross premium of Rs.
22,344.93 crore, total claims have been estimated at about Rs. 15100.68 crore
(68%). Of this amount, claims of Rs. 9446.83 crore have been approved and
claims of Rs. 6624.65 crore have already been settled/paid by Insurance
companies. It is to be noted that claim calculation for some crops/areas for
Kharif 2016 and most of the areas/crops for Rabi 2016 is yet to be made by
insurance companies.
·
In comparison under actuarial premium
based erstwhile schemes during 2011-12, which was also an agriculturally
favourable year, claims settled were only Rs. 1357.60 crore vis-a-vis premium
of Rs. 2131.29 crore, i.e. 63.70%.
·
Likewise in 2015-16, against the gross
premium of Rs. 3076.92 crore claims were to the tune of Rs. 4155.40 crore i.e.
133.75% of the gross premium. As this was a drought year, therefore claims
were more than the premium collected.
