Ministry of Agriculture estimates, there are 14 crores for farmer families in the country. Several states dropped out of the crop insurance scheme because of fiscal constraints.
The government making the scheme voluntary for the farmers has led to a stagnation in PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhīma Yojana) coverage. An official grouped with a leading crop insurance company, farmers in the irrigated regions of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
And some other states are not joining PMFBY as they perceive the low risk to their crops from experiences in recent years.
The crop insurance scheme jointly sponsored by the Centre and states is facing the twin problems of many state governments ceasing to fund it
In many states, wheat farmers losing interest in the scheme, as crop failures have become rarer due to improved irrigation.
Overall, farmers’ enrolment in the 2021-22 season in both Kharif and Rabi seasons has risen marginally by 7% to 6.6 crores compared to 6.1 crores reported in 2020-21. In terms of the value of the sum insured.
However, there was a drop of 60% in the 2021-22 season to Rs 1.4 lakh crore in comparison to the 2020-21 season. 88% more than the farmers enrolled in PMFBY for rabi 2021-22 belong to five states – Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra.
Chhattisgarh. 18 states currently and Union Territories are implementing PMFBY. In February 2020, the government made the PMFBY voluntary for the farmers while previously the farmers needed to take insurance cover under the scheme.
Last year, the government constituted a working group comprising officials from the Centre, key crop-producing states.
And senior officials of the state-owned insurance companies to suggest ‘sustainable, financial and operational models,’ for PMFBY. Committees have conducted several meetings in the last months.
The government has identified hardening of the premium market, lack of sufficient participation in tenders, inadequate underwriting capacity of insurers among factors preventing the adoption of PMFBY on a large scale.
Now, there is no fixed premium rate under PMFBY implemented by states. Vary the rates from area to area and from crop to crop. The insurance companies are determined the actuarial premium rates levied through bidding conducted by the states.
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