Crop Insurance Scheme: The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is a government-initiated scheme for crop insurance. Crop insurance protects farmers from the financial ramifications of unexpected hazards outside of their control that could cause crop failures or losses.
PMFBY plans to provide complete insurance cover against crop failure to stabilise the farmers’ income.
As long as enough crop-cutting experiments (CCEs) are being conducted as part of the general crop estimating survey and prior yield data are available, all food and oil seed crops and yearly commercial and horticultural crops are covered by the programme (GCES).
Salient Features of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
To enhance sustainable output in the agricultural sector, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) offers financial assistance to farmers who suffer crop loss or damage due to unanticipated conditions.
Provides comprehensive insurance protection against crop loss due to unavoidable natural risks, assisting in stabilising farmers’ incomes and encouraging the adoption of progressive techniques.
Farmers must pay a premium and an insurance rate; the difference is supplied as a subsidy and split evenly between the Center and State.
For both loanee and non-loanee farmers have a uniform standard for seasonality and sum insured.
Crop Insurance Portal was created to ensure improved management, coordination, transparency, information distribution, and service delivery, including electronically crediting the claim amount to each farmer’s bank account.
The scheme focuses on raising awareness of the programmes among all stakeholders and providing the necessary resources for them.
Making the programme optional for all farmers rather than requiring loanee farmers to participate.
Utilization of drones, smartphones, and remote sensing technology for fast calculation of crop losses to ensure prompt claims settlement.
All across the nation, individual farm-level assessment and settlement of claims for naturalcalamities such as hailstorms, landslides, flooding, cloud burst, and natural fire, as well as post-harvest losses due to cyclones, cyclonic/unseasonal rainfall, and hailstorm for the crops maintained in the field for drying up to 14 days.
Stabilizing farmer earnings to ensure their capacity to continue farming and motivating farmers to use innovative and modern agricultural practices
To protect farmers from production risk, ensuring the flow of funding to the agricultural sector will help to promote crop diversity, food security, the sector’s growth, and competitiveness.
Objectives of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna
To provide farmers with insurance protection and financial support if any of the crops fail due to calamities, pests, or diseases.
To Aid in income stabilisation and ensure farmers’ capacity to carry on farming.
To inspire farmers to use cutting-edge and modern agricultural techniques.
To ensure that money is going to the agriculture industry.
Who can be covered in Fasal Bima Yojana?
Everyone who farms the notified crops in the notified areas, including tenant farmers and sharecroppers, is eligible for coverage. However, for the informed/insured crops, farmers should have an insurable interest.
How can Farmers Enrol in Fasal Bima Yojana?
The National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP), which is managed by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare in New Delhi, requires all farmers—loanee and non-loanee—to register. The task of uploading the data to the NCIP falls on farmers’ banks that offer seasonal agricultural loans.
DD or cheques are not recognised as premium payment forms; only NEFT is allowed. For non-loanee farmers, intermediaries, Common Service Centers (CSCs), farmers operating independently, and other agencies are required to upload the data in the NCIP along with four papers. The same goes for enrollment applications, which must all be filed online and not approved if submitted offline.