PMFBY: Government Plans to Launch a Massive Drive to Reach 1 crore Farmers

In order to raise awareness among farmers about the flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), the Centre has decided to launch a massive drive to physically reach out to nearly 1 crore enrolled farmers and distribute policy papers for the current Rabi season.

The nationwide programme, which will be launched on February 26 at a function in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, by Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, is dependent on the active participation of states.

According to an official, the Ministry has written to all 20 participating states where PMFBY is operational to coordinate with insurance companies for the "door to door" delivery programme.

During the current Rabi season, an estimated 98.65 lakh farmers in 19 states have enrolled in PMFBY. Karnataka has yet to provide data. 73.5 percent of the 3.30 crore applications from these farmers are loanees, with the remaining 26.5 percent being non-loanees. The Centre has left it up to the states to decide whether or not to cover non-loanee farmers under the programme.

"Non-loanee farmers typically enroll through common service centres (CSCs) and obtain their receipts from there." They may not be aware of the requirement. "However, because the loanee farmers are enrolled through lending banks, the majority of them do not have any documentary proof of their enrollment," the official explained.

After insurance companies raised some logistical issues in arranging the programmes, the Centre has also allowed states to decide whether to reach out to places where only a few enrolled farmers live.

The government has published a document format in which the policy paper should be submitted, along with a message from Tomar and a message from the chief minister/agriculture minister of State.

The Centre has advised states to invite gram panchayat members, ground-level State government officials from related departments, local eminent personalities, farmer producer organizations, and Krishi Vigyan Kendras to the meeting where policy papers will be delivered. The Centre has also requested that states use these meetings to disseminate information about natural farming and the use of drone technology in agriculture.