About Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

• PMFBY launched in 2016, provides a comprehensive insurance cover against crop damage or loss arising out of unforeseen events thus helping in stabilising the income of the farmers and encouraging them for adoption of innovative practices and to ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.
• The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

Crops covered : 

Oilseed crops; all food crops; Annual commercial/horticultural crops

Eligibility criteria : 

• Initially, the scheme was mandatory for the farmers who have borrowed institutional loans from banks, and it is optional for the farmers who have not availed institutional credit.

Premium : 

• There will be a uniform premium of 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops. For annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be 5%.
• The difference between premium and the rate of Insurance charges payable by farmers shall be shared equally by the Centre and State.

Coverage : 

• It aims at covering the losses suffered by farmers such as pre- sowing losses, post-harvest losses due to cyclonic rains and losses due to unseasonal rainfall in India. It also covers losses due to localized calamities such as inundation, hailstorm and landslide risks.
• Exclusions : The losses arising out of war and nuclear risks, malicious damage and other preventable risks are not covered under this scheme.

The scheme is implemented by empanelled general insurance companies. The funds for the scheme come from the Krishi Kalyan Kosh.

Krishi Kalyan Kosh (farmers’ welfare fund) is an emergency fund to support farmers when they incur losses due to low rates of produce, crop damage due to natural disasters, and to assist them when there is a delay in payment of minimum support price (MSP) by the Centre.

Recent changes

• Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the revamp of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme to enable quick and accurate yield estimation thus leading to faster claims settlement.

• The enrolment in the two schemes has been made voluntary for all farmers, including those with existing crop loans.
• The Centre has reduced its share of the premium subsidy under PMFBY/RWBCIS from the current 50% to 25% in irrigated areas and 30% for unirrigated areas from the kharif season of 2020. Districts having 50 per cent or more irrigated area will be considered as irrigated area/district.
• Central share in premium subsidy is increased to 90 per cent for north eastern states from the existing sharing pattern of 50:50 under both the schemes.
• Technology solutions like Smart Sampling Technique (SST) to be adopted during assessment exercises.
• The Centre has given states/UTs the option to select any number of additional risk covers/features like prevented sowing, localised calamity, mid-season adversity, and post-harvest losses. Earlier, these risk covers were mandatory.

Why in News?

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs chaired a meeting to review the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1638347