Center’s crop insurance plan finds more takers | India News

In fact, the non-loan insured area accounted for 36.07 percent of the total area insured under the PMFBY program during 2022-23, the highest in the past five years. The proportion of non-loaned area in the total area insured under PMFBY has been hovering around 24 per cent over the past five years – 23.93 per cent in 2021-22, 24.52 per cent in 2020-21, and 22.38 per cent in 2019-20 and 24. .3 percent in 2018-2019.

While the non-loaned insured area has increased over the past five years, the loan area has seen a decline from 444,000 hectares in 2019-20 to 354,000 hectares in 2020-21 to 336,000 hectares in 2021-22 to 320,000 hectares in 2022 – 23. In 2018-2019, the area of ​​loans reached 406 thousand hectares.

The NDA government launched the PMFBY program from the fall of 2016. After implementing the scheme for the first two years, the government reviewed it and made some changes with effect from 1 October 2018. In 2020, the government renewed the operational guidelines for the scheme, and issued revised amendments. The guidelines came into effect from Fall 2020.

Initially, the scheme was mandatory for loan farmers, who have crop loan account/kisan credit card (KCC) account and for whom the credit limit is levied/renewed for the notified crop during the crop season. But from the fall of 2020 this was done voluntarily. This explains the decrease in the loaned area.

Under the PMFBY Act, farmers have to pay premiums at the rate of 2 per cent of the sum insured or the actuarial rate whichever is lower for kharif food and oilseed crops (all cereals, millets, oilseeds and pulses), and 1.5 per cent for rabi food and oilseed crops (all cereals, millets, oilseeds and pulses), and 5 per cent for commercial/annual horticultural crops in kharif and rabi. In many states, including Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Tripura, state governments pay insurance premiums to farmers and provide insurance free of charge.

In kharif 2023, the scheme will be notified by 21 states and union territories, covering 29 agricultural and 59 horticultural crops. In kharif 2022, the scheme was implemented in 20 states and union territories, covering 33 agricultural and 52 horticultural crops.

Experts said the steady rise in non-loan area under PMFBY indicates growing acceptance of the scheme.

“Since a large number of farmers have benefited from this scheme, even non-loaning farmers have been registered so that they can benefit from the scheme. In view of the highly subsidized premiums where the farmer is asked to pay a meager amount, this scheme has become popular,” said Rajeev Chaudhary, Director Former management of Agricultural Insurance Corporation of India Limited: “This trend indicates broader acceptance of the scheme.”

Area (lakh hectares) covered under PMFBY