Crop Insurance: What Are the Benefits & How To Claim It?

Crop insurance is a basic necessity that all farmers should incorporate to help maintain agricultural earnings, especially in disaster-prone years, by benefiting from financial assistance and insurance coverage in the event of natural disasters, illnesses, and pests. Encourage farmers to use improved technology to undertake progressive farming practices.

Benefits of Crop Insurance

Crop insurance has several essential characteristics and benefits, including, crop insurance providing financial assistance to the farmers in the event of crop failure. It also encourages farmers to use more advanced farming techniques and technology in agriculture. Crop insurance helps farmers keep their agricultural finance flowing.

Indirect benefits of Crop Insurance

Maintaining production and employment, generating taxes or market fees, net accretion to economic growth, streamlining loss assessment procedures, and building an accurate statistical base for crop production are indirect benefits of crop insurance.

What’s Covered under Crop Insurance?

The following are examples of what is and is not covered by crop insurance policies:

• Loss or damage to the insured farmer's property.

• Fire or natural disaster-related damage or loss (including storm, flood, tornado, earthquake, cyclone, etc.)

• Personal accident insurance. This includes both the insured farmer and his or her family).

• Insurance against the loss of a pump set.

• Coverage for tractor damage or loss.

• Damage or loss caused by a power outage is covered. 

List of companies that provide Crop Insurance

• Reliance General Insurance Co. Ltd.

• Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Co. Ltd.

• Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd

• IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Co. Ltd

• HDFC ERGO General Insurance Co. Ltd.

• ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd

• Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited

• Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd

• Universal Sompo General Insurance Company Limited

Claiming process of Crop Insurance

To begin, farmers must first register with the insurance provider businesses. Crop insurance requires that the marketing surplus be registered at the time of crop seeding. The insurance company will then propose a suitable coverage plan. Market prices from the past or minimum support price guarantees are included in the coverage plan. Farmers must pay the premiums for any sort of price insurance.

In the beginning, the government will assist with premium payments. If the notified market price falls below the insured price during the harvest period, the farmer will be paid by the insurance provider.

In the event of damage, the yield statistics must first be obtained from the state/UT government within the statutory cut-off dates. The claims will then be reviewed and settled by IA. The claim cheques and claim details will then be delivered to the individual Nodal Banks. Following that, the bank will credit the accounts of individual farmers at the grassroots level. The names of the beneficiaries will be posted on the bank's bulletin board.

The IA will establish a method for calculating individual farmer losses. For this process, the DAC/State/UT will be contacted, and it will be done in light of a specific disaster, such as a flood, cyclone, or landslide.