Crop Insurance schemes in India: Need, Importance and Benefits to Farmers

Everyone is familiar with insurance; we ordinary people understand that life is unpredictable; anything can happen at any time, which is why we rely on insurance for protection. Health insurance, travel insurance, life insurance, and many other types of insurance are available.

But what about Crop Insurance?

Crop insurance, to be precise. For farmers, this is just as crucial as any other type of insurance. The harvest that you grow with all of your labor, money, and virtually everything you have is also significant.

What if your crop gets damaged due to any reason? Who will be answerable? Who will give its return? Who will help you after that? Really important to think. Right…!!  

For this reason, the government set up a Crop Insurance system years ago and continues to improve policies to this day. Despite this, many farmers do not utilize Crop Insurance. Let's look at why crop insurance is important and how it can help you.

The need for Crop Insurance  

Natural disasters primarily harm poor farmers in developing countries. Crop insurance also protects farmers against the loss of crops due to natural disasters, extreme weather, or revenue loss owing to price fluctuations in the agricultural market. A farmer who struggles with his plough will be assured that, in the case of a disaster, he will at least receive some return. 

Advantages of Crop Insurance   

1. Income stability -It secures farmers against crop failure-related losses. It's a resource that assists farmers in managing yield and price risks.

2. Minimum debts- Even during crop failure, farmers will be in the condition to repay their loans with the help of crop insurance.  

3. Technological advancement  - Insurance companies can also provide information on how to reduce losses, which can help farmers. In addition, IoT can support in technological advancement.

4. New agricultural practices  - By protecting against loss, Crop insurance assures economic interest. And farmers can adopt new agricultural practices in return to this and can try new measures to protect their crops.  

Crop insurance schemes in India

The government has implemented four insurance schemes to support farmers and they are as follows;

• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

• Weather-based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS)

• Pilot Unified Package insurance scheme (UPIS)

• Coconut Palm insurance scheme (CPIS)

This is all about Crop Insurance. Along with this, one more thing is good to know that, there are various types of crop insurance such as Crop-hail insurance, Multiple peril crop insurance, Yield-based, and revenue-based crop insurance. So, you can choose as per your need.    

In a series of articles, we will cover up all the aspects of Crop Insurance in India, its importance, and why the farmers need to understand it for their financial security.