Tamil Nadu Government Approves Over 2,000 Crores for Crop Insurance Premium Subsidy

The Tamil Nadu government has approved approximately 2,000 crores toward its share of premium subsidy for the current year, despite the Prime Minister's Crop Insurance Scheme (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana-PMFBY) rising premium burden and the Center gradually reducing its share of premium subsidy.

To the dismay of farmers, the government has ignored crops grown during the current kuruvai season (June-July) just as it did the year before. This implies that the crops to be grown during the samba (August) and thaladi seasons (September-November) will be covered.

Crops make up 1,985 crores of the approximately 2,042 crores granted for the premium subsidy, and horticulture crops make up 57 crores. Since the PMFBY's introduction, around 13.8 lakh farmers have received payments of almost 2,450 crores annually in the form of compensation or claims. The annual average amount of compensation for 2021–2022 has not been included because the year's claim settlements are still being finalized.

The State will be covered by five insurance companies through 14 clusters:

This year's PMFBY has five companies instead of the previous year's two, which is a significant change. A total of 14 clusters in 37 districts have been assigned to the following companies: Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited, IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance Company, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company, and Reliance General Insurance Company.

According to a representative of the Agriculture Department, this is now possible as a result of the government "instilling confidence" in them through its efforts to eliminate the false enrollment of farmers and the coverage of inflated areas, as well as through the "careful execution" of crop-cutting experiments. About 2.5 lakh acres were excluded from coverage in only the past year, saving the exchequer about $100 million.

According to another official, the government has prepared to compensate farmers through the State Disaster Response Fund in the case of crop loss. The minimal likelihood of crop failure and the expense aspect are two justifications given for not including the kuruvai crop.

Additionally, the tender procedure took about 1.5 months to complete and included a re-tender. The government anticipates a similar enrollment of about 25 lakh farmers and coverage of 40 lakh acres to last year. They intend to focus more on them because they believe there is room to bring more loanee farmers under the insurance coverage.