Lok Sabha Question No. 3573 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-10
Subject: Crop Insurance against KCC
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Rajveer Diler

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3573

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 10 TH  DECEMBER, 2019

## CROP INSURANCE AGAINST KCC

## 3573.   SHRI RAJVEER DILER:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  consent  of  the  farmers  who  took  Kisan  Credit  Card  Loans  is  not  taken  while extending crop insurance to them in the interest of private companies;

(b) whether the Government proposes to give right of selection of insurance companies to farmers;

(c) whether the Government proposes to direct insurance companies to issue policy bonds to farmers and to give information regarding benefit liability in written form in regional language;

(d) whether the Government proposes to issue guidelines to companies, banks and State Government in this direction;

- (e) if so, the details thereof and the time by which the guidelines will be issued; and
- (f) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a)  &  (b):    The  objective  of  launching  the  new  yield  based  scheme  namely  Pradhan  Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and a weather index based 'Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance  Scheme (RWBCIS)' from Kharif 2016, is  to  provide  a  simple  and  affordable  crop insurance  product  to  ensure  comprehensive  risk  cover  for  crops  of  farmers  against  all  nonpreventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest, to provide adequate claim amount and timely settlement of claims.

Crop insurance is a major risk mitigation tool for the benefit of farmers. Therefore, the scheme is made compulsory for the loanee farmers obtaining seasonal agricultural opraratoins loans/KCC loans, for growing notified crops in notified areas and the scheme is voluntary for non-loanee  farmers.    Requests/representations  have  been  received  from  various  quarters including  farmer  organizations,  States  etc.  to  make  the  scheme  voluntary/optional  for  all farmers.  The revisions/improvements in the crop insurance schemes is a continuous process and decisions on suggstions/representations are taken from time to time after consultation with various stakeholders.

(c)  to  (f):    Crop  Insurance  Schemes  were  earlier  implemented  on  area  approach  basis  and major coverage (over 95%) under these schemes was mandatory enrolment of loanee farmers. Consolidated  declarations  containing  name  of  crop,  number  of  farmers  insured  and  premium collected,  without  any  detail  of  individual  farmer,  were  sent  by  the  nodal  offices  of  banks  to insurance companies for enrolment.  As such, receipt to individual farmers was not provided by the insurance companies/banks.

However, under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), nodal bank system has been  withdrawn  and  all  bank  branches  directly  submit  the  individual  farmer-wise  data  on National  Crop  Insurance  Portal  (NCIP)  from  Kharif  2017.    Following  this  change,  financial institutions and insurance companies were instructed to provide 'acknowledgement receipt' to all insured farmers. Now, 'acknowledgement receipts' containing details of crop, premium, area insured, sum insured, details of insurance company, etc., are provided to all the Banks through NCIP  for  distribution  to  all  the  loanee  farmers.      In  addition,  Post  Offices  have  also  been engaged to distribute the acknowledgement receipt containing aforesaid details with brief of the scheme to insured loanee faremrs from Kharif 2018 season onwards.

Further,  from  Kharif  2017,  provision  has  been  made  to  enable  non-loanee  farmers  to enroll  directly  on  the  portal  or  through  Common  Service  Centers  (CSC)  and  to  receive  the acknowledgement  receipt  immediately  on  enrolment.    Further,  non-loanee  farmers  enrolling directly  with  insurance companies or their intermediaries, get the 'acknowledgement receipts' immediately from them.

Further,  the  Government  has  reviewed  the  matter  from  time  to  time  for  improving  the system.  Towards this end, in addition, SMSs have also been provided to insured farmers from Kharif-2017 onwards on receipt of their data on portal from banks.    An Android based Crop Insurance App has also been developed,   through which farmers can track the status of their application, claims and also the crop damage report etc.

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