National News

Transparency and Accountability under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

31 July 2021, New Delhi: The farmers can get enrolled through various sources under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).  In addition to the conventional channels of enrollment of farmers through Rural financial institutions/banks and insurance companies/their intermediaries, Common Service Centers (CSCs) are also available at village level for facilitating free enrollment.  Farmers can also do direct online enrollment on National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) or through Crop Insurance App. 

To motivate and to increase the coverage/enrollment of farmers under the scheme, Government has taken several steps to create substantial awareness amongst the farmers on the benefits/key features of PMFBY.   The Government has actively supported the awareness activities being carried out by the States, implementing Insurance Companies, financial institutions and Common Service Centre (CSC) network to disseminate key features of PMFBY amongst farmers and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). All the grass root level organisations including ATMA functionaries responsible for implementing PMFBY are actively involved in building capacity of farmers to take informed decisions.    As envisaged in the operational guidelines of the PMFBY, the Insurance companies have been asked to utilize 0.5% fund of the gross premium collected by them on Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities to build overall insurance literacy of farmers.

Apart from this, other activities for awareness generation involve the publicity of key features and benefits of the scheme through advertisements in leading National and local newspapers, airing of audio-visual spots on regional / local channels, distribution of IEC material in local language, dissemination of SMS through Kisan / National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) and organisation of online workshops of all stakeholders including farmers and other key stakeholders.

Recently, a structuredawareness campaign ‘Crop Insurance Week/Fasal Bima Saptah’ was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare between 1st July 2021 to 7th July 2021 under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav,  an initiative to celebrate 75 years of India’s independence, in all the districts/areas notified under the scheme with special emphasis on 75 aspirational/tribal districts. 

As a result of these measures, since inception of the scheme in 2016-17, over 2929 lakh farmer applications have been enrolled.   Against the premium of Rs. 21574 crore paid by farmers, the claims amounting to Rs. 98108 crore have been paid to 843.4 lakh farmer applications.

This Department has taken various steps/measures to strengthen the capacity of various stakeholders involved in implementation of the Scheme through various channels like stratified training programme,  interaction workshop, conference e-learning etc.   Standardized training manuals and material including training material, pamphlets, broachers and Standard Operating procedures etc. have also been prepared for capacity building purposes of various stakeholders of the scheme.   

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Review and improvement of the scheme is a continuous process.  Based on the experience gained, views of various stakeholders and with a view to ensure better transparency, accountability, timely payment of claims to the farmers and to make the scheme more farmer friendly, Government has comprehensively revised and revamped the Operational Guidelines of the PMFBY with effect from Rabi 2018 and Kharif 2020 respectively to ensure the targeted delivery of benefits of the scheme to the farmers adequately and timely.  

National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) – www.pmfby.gov.in with the objective to digitize the entire process/activities of the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and to ensure better administration, co-ordination, transparency, dissemination of information and delivery of services including direct online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured farmer’s details for better monitoring and to ensure transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmers Bank Accounts has been developed.    To ensure timely payment of claims, use of smartphone/CCE-Agri App for real time transfer of yield data on NCIP has also been initiated.   Through NCIP and Crop Insurance App, farmers can track their crop insurance and get all information about it. 

This information was given in a written reply by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Mr. Narendra Singh Tomar in Rajya Sabha today.