States opting out of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
15 March 2023, New Delhi: The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was introduced in the country in Kharif 2016 season. Since the inception of the scheme in Kharif in 2016, 27 States/Union Territories implemented the PMFBY in one or more seasons.
Some States/UTs like Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Gujarat have opted out of the scheme after implementing it for some seasons due to reasons like the perception of risk and financial constraints. Due to the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Andhra Pradesh has re-joined the scheme from Kharif 2022 season and Punjab has made a budget announcement to do so. The PMFBY is available for all States/UTs and is voluntary for them. States/UTs are free to subscribe under the scheme keeping in view their risk perception and financial considerations etc. The scheme is also voluntary for the farmers to enroll themselves as per their risk perception.
Though timelines for each activity including settlement of claims are provided in the Operational Guidelines of PMFBY, the settlement of a few claims in some States got slightly delayed. The reason for the delay is usually delayed transmission of yield data and late release of the State share in premium subsidy by the States, yield-related disputes between insurance companies and States, non-receipt of account details of some farmers for transfer of claims to the bank account of eligible farmers, National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) related issues, erroneous/incomplete entry of individual farmers data on National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP), delay in remittance of farmers share of premium/non-remittance of farmers share of the premium from the concerned insurance company, etc.
This Department is regularly monitoring the implementation of PMFBY including timely settlement of claims through weekly video conferences of stakeholders, one-to-one meetings with insurance companies/States, etc. Various innovative technologies are also adopted to increase the timeliness of the flow of requisite information/data amongst stakeholders.
Since the inception of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in 2016-17, coverage under the scheme has been around 30% of Gross Cropped Area (GCA) in the States/UTs who are implementing the scheme. Year-wise details of coverage in terms of farmer applications enrolled and area insured during the last three years under PMFBY is given below :
| Year | Farmer Applications(In Lakhs) | Area Insured (in lakh ha.) |
| 2019-2020 | 616.16 | 508.4 |
| 2020-2021 | 623.19 | 495.4 |
| 2021-2022 | 831.76 | 459.0 |
Compulsory use of Aadhar numbers for coverage and technology interventions such as API-based land record integration have weeded out the instances of over-insurance in terms of the area even when enrollment under the scheme has grown.
The Government has taken several steps to create substantial awareness about the scheme amongst beneficiaries so that they can enroll themselves voluntarily under the scheme. The Government has made provisions to ensure the availability of adequate funds for awareness of PMFBY. The revised Operational Guidelines for PMFBY which came into effect on 1st October 2018 have inter-alia provided that the insurance companies should compulsorily spend at least 0.5% of the total gross premium collected by them for Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) activities.
The Government has actively supported the awareness activities being carried out by the States, implementing Insurance Companies, financial institutions, and Common Service Centres (CSCs) network to disseminate key features of PMFBY amongst farmers and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
Further, a structured awareness campaign ‘Crop Insurance Week/Fasal Bima Saptah’ has been initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare from Kharif 2021 season onwards. The core focus of the campaign is to increase awareness about the benefits of the scheme, sensitize the stakeholders, and increase overall enrolment of farmers, thereby helping them to reap the benefits of crop insurance with a special focus on identified aspirational/tribal districts.
Along with this, Fasal Bima Pathshalas are also being organized at the village/GP level for knowledge building of farmers on various aspects of scheme implementation.
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