Why West Bengal Government Stops Implementing Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana?

The government of West Bengal has stopped implementing the central scheme on crop insurance i.e. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from Kharif 2019 and instead has brought its own scheme, the Parliament was told on 23^rd July 2019.

The central government had launched yield-based Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana & weather-index based Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) offering financial support to cultivators experiencing crop loss or damage due to natural calamities or adverse weather incidence.

It is important to mention that the PMFBY is voluntary for states. West Bengal government had executed both the schemes in 2016-17, 2017-18 & 2018-19.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in Lok Sabha that "But state government has withdrawn from the scheme from Kharif 2019 and is implementing its own scheme 'Bangla Fasal Bima Yojana".

Under the PMFBY, all food & oilseed crops and commercial or horticultural crops can be notified subject to availability of previous yield data based on requisite number of crop cutting experiments (CCEs) & capacity of the states to carry out the requisite CCEs for each crop & insurance unit area.

But, for coverage of crops under the RWBCIS, required weather data is the precondition. According to the provisions of the scheme, particular crops and areas under the schemes are notified by the concerned state government.

Insurance companies charge actuarial or bidded premium rate. But growers have to pay maximum of 2% of sum insured for Kharif and 1.5% for Rabi food and oilseed crops & 5% for commercial or horticultural crops. The remaining part of actuarial premium is shared by the central as well as state government.