The scheme aims to support production in agriculture by providing support to ensure inclusive risk cover for crops of farmers

Launched in 2016, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has helped millions of farmers and was revamped in February 2020. The revamped scheme envisions comprehensively leveraging technology to address the issues impacting timely assessment and payment of claims, says CEO, PMFBY Ashish Kumar Bhutan in an article in The Financial Express.

He reveals that a central advisory committee has been set up with the implementing state governments and insurance companies to ensure uniformity of message across the country.

While writing in The Financial Express, Bhutan points out that farmers have received Rs 60,000 crore as insurance claim under PMFBY when they paid Rs 13,000 crore as premium.

PMFBY was launched to support production in agriculture by providing support to ensure inclusive risk cover for crops of farmers against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to the post-harvest stage.

Bhutan further says that the sum insured for each crop, which corresponds to the cost incurred and gives financial protection to the farmers, has almost doubled under this scheme from Rs 22,000 per hectare to Rs 39,000 per hectare.

The CEO, PMFBY points out that the combined claim ratio in the first three years of the scheme implementation is 88.3%. He adds that for Kharif 2019, the claims to the premium ratio for data available to date stands at 80.2% and is expected to increase further.

Bhutan mentions in The Financial Express article that a provision has been incorporated wherein states, where payment of state subsidy is excessively delayed, would not be allowed to participate in the scheme in subsequent seasons.

He adds that since the scheme has also been notified under the Aadhar Act 2016, it has helped in data de-duplication and identifying cases of multiple insurance.