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Topic: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana - PMFBY Completes Five Years

Why in News?

• The Central Government's flagship crop insurance scheme has successfully completed 5 years of its operation. In a historic step towards strengthening risk coverage of crops for farmers, the government approved the scheme in 2016.

About Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yajana (PMFBY)

• PMFBY was launched on January 13, 2016 with an aim to provide a comprehensive risk solution at the lowest uniform premium across the country for farmers.
• Under the scheme, premium cost over and above the farmer share is equally subsidized by States and central government. However, central government shares 90% of the premium subsidy for North Eastern States to promote the uptake in the region.

Scope of the Scheme

• The average sum insured per hectare has increased from Rs. 15,100 during the pre-PMFBY Schemes to Rs. 40,700 under PMFBY.
• As an end-to-end risk mitigation mechanism for farmers, the scheme extends coverage for the entire cropping cycle from pre-sowing to post-harvest including coverage for losses arising out of prevented sowing and mid-season adversities.
• Individual farm level losses arising out of localized calamities and post-harvest losses are also covered due to perils such as inundation, cloudburst and natural fire.
• Integration of land records with the PMFBY portal, crop insurance mobile app for easy enrolment of farmers and usage of technology such as satellite imagery, remote-sensing technology, drones, artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess crop losses are some of the key features of the scheme.
• The scheme makes it easier for the farmer to report crop loss within 72 hours of occurrence of any event through the crop insurance app, common service centre or the nearest agriculture officer.

Benefits So Far

• The Scheme covers over 5.5 crore farmer applications year on year.
• So far, 29 crore farmers have insured their crops under the scheme.
• Till date, claims worth Rs 90,000 crores have already been paid out under the Scheme.
• For speedy disbursal of claims and crop assessment, the centre is using satellite and is working closely with the state governments.
• A crop insurance mobile app, where farmers can get all information related to the scheme, is also made available.
• Aadhar seeding has helped in speedy claim settlement directly into the farmer accounts. Even during COVID lockdown period, nearly 70 lakh farmers benefitted and claims worth Rs 8,741.30 crores were transferred to beneficiaries, according to the ministry data.

Case Examples

• Some notable examples of these crop insurance covers are prevented sowing claims over Rs 500 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka during the kharif 2019 dry spell, and localised calamity claims of over Rs 100 crore in Haryana during kharif 2018 hailstorm.
• Claims to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore in Maharashtra during the kharif 2019 unseasonal rainfall and mid-season adversity claims of nearly Rs 30 crore in Rajasthan during rabi 2019-20 locust attack are also another examples.