PMFBY: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana successfully completes 5 years; Rs 90,000 crore paid to farmers so far

The Central Government has asked the farmers to take benefit of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana or PMFBY that has completed five years, in order to become ‘self-reliant farmers’.

Rs 90,000 crore have been paid to farmers since the launch of PMFBY on 13 January 2016, according to Union agriculture ministry.

It said even during the Coronavirus lockdown, almost 70 lakh farmers were benefitted from the scheme and claims worth Rs 8,741.30 crore were disbursed to the beneficiaries.

The ministry further said, "The Government of India has urged the farmers to take advantage of PMFBY scheme by associating themselves to become self-sufficient in times of crisis & support the creation of an Aatmanirbhar Kisan".  

Benefits of PMFBY

PMFBY covers more than 5.5 crore farmer applications year-on-year. The Aadhaar seeding has helped in quick claim settlement directly into the farmer accounts, according to the ministry.

The crop insurance scheme was made voluntary for all the farmers, after revamping it last year. In addition, the states have also been given flexibility to rationalise the sum insured so that proper benefit can be availed by farmers, the ministry said.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana was considered as a milestone initiative to provide a complete risk solution at the lowest uniform premium across the nation for farmers.

Under PMFBY, premium cost over and above the farmer share is evenly subsidised by states as well as central government. But, the Centre's share is 90% of the premium subsidy for northeast states so as to promote the uptake in the region.

Also, the average sum insured / hectare has increased from Rs 15,100 in the pre-PMFBY schemes to Rs 40,700.

The scheme extends coverage for the whole cropping cycle – beginning from pre-sowing to post-harvest, including coverage for losses due to prevented sowing & mid-season adversities. Moreover, individual farm-level losses because of localised calamities & post-harvest losses are also covered due to perils like inundation, cloudburst & natural fire.

The agriculture ministry added that some remarkable examples of these crop insurance covers are prevented sowing claims over Rs 500 crore in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh during kharif 2019 dry spell & localised calamity claims of more than Rs 100 crore in Haryana during kharif 2018 hailstorm.

Some of the key features of PMFBY are;

• Integration of land records with PMFBY official website

• Crop insurance mobile app for quick enrolment of farmers

• Usage of technology like satellite imagery, remote-sensing technology, drones, artificial intelligence & machine learning to assess crop losses.

The ministry said the scheme makes it easier for growers to report crop loss in 72 hours of occurrence of any event via the crop insurance app, nearest agriculture officer or common service centre.