PMFBY- YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme: Over 9 lakh farmers receive Rs 1,252 crore for losses in 2019

PMFBY Update: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister or Andhra pradesh on Tuesday (15 Dec 2020) launched ‘YSR Free Crop Insurance’ scheme and disbursed Rs 1,252 crore directly into the bank accounts of more than 9 lakh farmers, who have lost their crops in Kharif 2019.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the government has taken the responsibility of supporting the cultivators in the tough times and therefore brought in the free crop insurance scheme, without putting the burden of premium on them.

During the previous government, in order to avail the insurance scheme, farmers had to pay their share. But neither the State government nor the Centre used to pursue the insurance claims due to which farmers either received the insurance amount after a very long time or they end up losing the money.

With the aim to resolve this issue, the government has taken up the issue to benefit growers and processed the insurance claims in a fast-track mode, besides paying the whole premium on behalf of the farmers. Meanwhile in the previous government, farmers were reluctant to give heavy premiums.

Jagan said, “Between 2016-2019, in three years, the previous government had spent an average Rs 393 crore /annum towards insurance premium and the farmers paid about Rs 290 crore per annum. While only about 20 lakh farmers were registered for the insurance scheme in the previous TDP regime, in our government around 49.80 lakh farmers have been brought under the insurance cover & the State government has taken the responsibility of paying Rs 971 crore towards premium during 2019-2020’’.

It must be noted that in 2016-2017, 17.79 lakh farmers had insurance cover. In the year 2017-2018, it increased to 18.22 lakh farmers and in 2018-2019, 24.83 lakh farmers.

Jagan further told that “In our government, during 2019-2020, around 49.80 lakh farmers were brought under insurance coverage”.