Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), a crop insurance scheme was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13th January, 2016 to support sustainable production in agriculture.
Aim
To provide efficient crop insurance scheme to farmers of the country by way of financial support in occurrence of crop loss/damage due to unforeseen events.
Salient Features
- It is a crop insurance scheme.
- It will be work under aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare.
- The insurance premium will be low and subsidised by government.
- Premium subsidy will be shared equally between Centre and State.
- It will reduce the cost of premium significantly
- It will ensure early payment of claims to eligible insured farmers.
- Loanee farmers were compulsorily covered under the scheme. Now government has made it optional for loanee as well as non-loanee farmer
- Non-loanee farmers can also avail the scheme but are not compulsory to be covered.
- It will leverage technology to collect information and process the claims.
- Allocation of the scheme presented in budget 2016-2017 is Rs.5, 550 cores
- To stabilse the income of farmers to ensure their continuous process in farming.
Premium Rates
|
Season
|
Crops
|
Maximum Insurance charges payable by farmer (%age of sum insured)
|
|
Kharif
|
All foodgrain and oilseeds crops
|
2% of SI or actuarial rate, whichever is less
|
|
Rabi
|
All foodgrain and oilseeds crops
|
1.5% of SI or actuarial rate, whichever is less
|
|
Kharif and Rabi
|
Annual Commercial/Annual Horticultural crops
|
5% of SI or actuarial rate, whichever is less
|
Central Subsidy under PMFBY/RWBCIS to be limited for premium rates upto 30% for unirrigated areas/crops and 25% for irrigated areas/crops
Earlier Schemes
- National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS), 1999
- Modified NAIS (MNAIS)
Crops Covered
- Food crops (Cereals, Millets and Pulses)
- Oilseeds
- Annual Commercial / Annual Horticultural crops
Exclusion
The claim of losses arising out of war and nuclear risks, malicious damage and other preventable risks shall be excluded from scheme.
Updated Guidelines
The Government has decided to incorporate the provision of penalties for States and Insurance Companies for the delay in settlement of insurance claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
- The farmers will be paid 12% interest by insurance companies for the delay in settlement claims beyond two months of prescribed cut-off date
- State Governments will have to pay 12% interest for the delay in release of State share of subsidy beyond three months of prescribed cut-off date submission of requisition by insurance companies.
- Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare will launch ‘Meri Policy Mere Hath’ which is a doorstep distribution drive to deliver crop insurance policies to farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
Download this article as PDF
Click to go to RBI Grade B Preparation Page | Click to read more government schemes