Lok Sabha Question No. 383 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-22
Subject: Farmers benefitted under PMFBY
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shri Omprakash Bhupalsinh Alias Pavan Rajenimbalkar

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 383

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 22 ND  JULY, 2025

## FARMERS BENEFITTED UNDER PMFBY

383. SHRI OMPRAKASH BHUPALSINH ALIAS PAVAN RAJENIMBALKAR:

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

- (a) the number of farmers who have benefitted so far under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during the years 2022-23 and 2023-24;
- (b) the specific details with respect to the State of Maharashtra;
- (c) whether the Government has received any complaints regarding delay in settlement of claims by insurance companies;
- (d) if so, the details of action taken by the Government thereon; and
- (e) whether the Government is adopting any technological measures to provide more accurate and timely weather information to farmers, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ͪष एवं ͩकसान कãयाण राÏय मंğी (SHRI  RAMNATH THAKUR)

- (a) to (e) : The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) was introduced in the country from Kharif 2016 season.   The scheme is voluntary for the States and farmers.   Details of number of farmer applications enrolled and number of farmer  who got claims during 2022-23 and 2023-24 are given below :

| Year    | No. of Farmers Applications Enrolled (in lakhs)   |   No. of farmer applications who got claims (in lakhs) |
|---------|---------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|
| 2022-23 | 1,120                                             |                                                    334 |
| 2023-24 | 1,434                                             |                                                    376 |

Specific details in respect of Mahrashtra are given in Table below :

| Year    |   No. of Farmers Applications Enrolled (in lakhs) |   No. of farmer applications who got claims (in lakhs) |
|---------|---------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------|
| 2022-23 |                                               107 |                                                     76 |
| 2023-24 |                                               242 |                                                    132 |

All  the  major  work  like  selection  of  insurance  model,  selection  of  Insurance Companies through transparent bidding process, enrollment of farmers, assessment of crop  yield/crop  loss  for  calculation  of  admissible  claims  are  being  performed  by  the concerned  State  Government  or  Joint  Committee  of  State  Government  officials  and concerned  insurance  company.  The  roles  and  responsibilities  of  each  stakeholder  are defined  in  the  Operational  Guidelines  of  the  scheme  for  the  proper  execution  of  the scheme.

Majority  of  the  claims  are  settled    within  the  stipulated  timelines  under  the Operational Guidelines of the scheme i.e within 21 days of the receipt requisite yield data from the concerned State Government,  by the insurance companies.    However, during the  implementation  of  PMFBY,  some  complaints/grievances  were  received  in  the  past about payment of claims which are primarily on account of (a) delay in providing State Government share of subsidy  (b) non-payment/delayed payment or under payment of claims on account of incorrect/delayed submission of insurance proposals by banks  (c)  discrepancy  in  yield  data  &  consequent  disputes  between  State Government and insurance companies etc. The pending claims on account of these issue are settled after their resolution as per provisions of the scheme.

Government has taken various steps to strengthen implementation of this scheme, bring transparency and ensure timely settlement of claims :

-  Government has undertaken development of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) as  a  single  source  of  data  ensuring  subsidy  payment,  co-ordination, transparency,  dissemination  of  information  and  delivery  of  services  including direct online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured famer's details for better monitoring and to ensure transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmer's Bank Account.
-  In  order  to  rigorously  monitor  claim  disbursal  process,  a  dedicated  module namely 'Digiclaim Module' has been operationalized for payment of claims from Kharif 2022 onwards.  It involves integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) with Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and accounting system of Insurance Companies to provide timely & transparent processing of all claims w.e.f. Kharif 2024, in case payment is not made timely by Insurance Company, penalty of 12% is auto-calculated and levied through NCIP.
-  Delinking of Central Government share of premium subsidy from that of State Governments  has  been  implemented  so  that  farmers  can  get  proportionate claims relating to the Central Government share.
-  Opening of ESCROW Account by the State Government concerned for deposit of  their  premium share in advance as per provisions of the scheme has been made mandatory w.e.f. Kharif 2025 season.
-  Also, towards leveraging technology in implementation of the scheme, various steps like capturing of yield data/Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) data through CCE-Agri App &  uploading  it  on  the  NCIP,  allowing  insurance  companies  to witness the conduct of CCEs, integration of State land records with NCIP etc. have already been taken to improve timely settlement of the claims to farmers.
-  Provision of 12% penalty on delay in payment of claims by insurance company is auto calculated on National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP).

Following  technologies  for  Objective  Crop  Damage,  Loss  Assessment  and transparency as well as hyperlocal weather data have also been implemented recently w.e.f. 2023-24 under the scheme:

- i. YES-TECH  (Yield  Estimation  System  Based  on  Technology) for  gradual migration to Remote-Sensing based yield estimation to help assess yields as well as fair and accurate Crop Yield Estimation . This initiative has been launched for paddy & wheat crops from Kharif 2023 wherein 30% weightage to yield estimation will mandatorily be assigned to YES-TECH derived yield. Soybean crop has been added from Kharif 2024 season.
- ii. WINDS  (Weather  Information  Network  and  Data  System) for  setting  up  of Network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) & Automatic Rain-Gauges (ARG) to the tune of 5 times of existing  network for collecting hyper-local weather data at GP & Block level.  This will be fed into a National database with interoperability & sharing of  data  in  coordination  with  India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD).    WINDS provides  data  not  only  for  YES-TECH  but  also  for  effective  drought  &  disaster management, accurate weather prediction and offering better parametric insurance products.

Department  is  regularly  monitoring  the  functioning  of  insurance  companies, including timely settlement of claims through weekly video conferences of all stakeholders, one to one meeting as well as National Review Conferences.

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