26.5% farmers sought coverage under PM’s crop insurance scheme

NEW DELHI: The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) launched during the 2016 kharif season to help farmers insure their crops against natural calamities has provided coverage to 366.64 lakh farmers (26.50%), the agriculture ministry has said.

The ministry expects the scheme to exceed the target of 30% coverage for both kharif and rabi seasons in 2016-17.

The scheme covers 388.62 lakh hectare with sum insured of Rs 1, 41,339 crore. The scheme was recast as a new scheme by the government since two existing insurance schemes were not meeting the full requirements of farmers for insurance coverage, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The performance this season has improved by 18.50% in terms of farmers coverage, 15% in terms of area coverage and 104% in terms of sum insured in comparison to Kharif 2015, which happened to be one of the worst drought affected seasons when the number of farmers covered was 309 lakh (22.33%), total area coverage was 339 lakh hectrae and sum insured was Rs 69,307 crore,” the statement said.

The agriculture ministry said there has been a jump of more than six times in coverage of non-loanee farmers from 14.88 lakh in kharif 2015 to 102.6 lakh in kharif 2016, which shows the scheme has been well received by non-loanee segment.

“Another significant achievement in this season has been 104% enhancement in sum insured. This was made possible as the scheme mandates that the sum insured must be equal to the scale of finance and therefore, reflects better risk coverage of farmers in comparison to earlier schemes,” the statement said.
The ministry said that in many states, the notification of the scheme was delayed as the states did the bidding process for selection of the insurance companies for concerned clusters for the first time.
 

Source: ECONOMIC TIMES