Lok Sabha Question No. 2558 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-05
Subject: PMFBY as the largest Crop Insurance Scheme in the World
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Shri Dulu Mahato, Shri Bidyut Baran Mahato, Smt. Sandhya Ray, Dr. Hemant Vishnu Savara, Smt. Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, Shri Karan Bhushan Singh, Smt. Himadri Singh, Ms Kangna Ranaut, Shri P P Chaudhary, Shri Rajkumar Chahar, Smt. Smita Uday Wagh, Shri Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar, Shri Manoj Tiwari, Shri Dineshbhai Makwana

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2558

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 05 TH  AUGUST, 2025

## PMFBY AS THE LARGEST CROP INSURANCE SCHEME IN THE WORLD

2558. SHRI P P CHAUDHARY: SMT. HIMADRI SINGH: SMT. MALA RAJYA LAXMI SHAH: SHRI DINESHBHAI MAKWANA: SHRI DULU MAHATO: SHRI BIDYUT BARAN MAHATO: SHRI MANOJ TIWARI: DR. HEMANT VISHNU SAVARA: SHRI KARAN BHUSHAN SINGH: SMT. SMITA UDAY WAGH: MS KANGNA RANAUT: SHRI CHHATRAPAL SINGH GANGWAR: SMT. SANDHYA RAY: SHRI RAJKUMAR CHAHAR:

Will  the  Minister  of  AGRICULTURE  AND  FARMERS  WELFARE क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण मंũी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Pradhan  Mantri  Fasal  Bima  Yojana  (PMFBY)  is  the  world's  largest  crop insurance scheme;
- (b) if  so, the details of the major initiatives taken by the Government to make this possible and the increase in the number of farmers covered under the scheme as a result of the said initiatives particularly in the State of Rajasthan;
- (c) the  details  of  the  total  amount  of  premium  paid  by  farmers  since  the  inception  of  the scheme, the number of farmers who received compensation/claims settled and the total amount distributed to the farmers during the last five years, State-wise particularly Palghar and Jalgaon districts in Maharashtra;
- (d) whether any major structural/technological improvements has been made in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana as compared to the previous crop insurance scheme; and
- (e) if so, the key innovations introduced-such as digitization, faster claim settlement or use of remote sensing-and their impact on timely and transparent delivery, especially in States like Maharashtra?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

क ृ िष एवं िकसान कʞाण राǛ मंũी

(SHRI  RAMNATH THAKUR)

- (a) to (e) : Yes Sir.  The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yoajna (PMFBY) is the world's largest scheme in  terms  of  farmers  applications/policies  issued.    The    following  steps  have  been  taken  by  the Government to strengthen implementation of the scheme including increase in coverage of farmer applications, bring transparency, ensure timely settlement of claims and increase awareness of the scheme :
-  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.
-  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).
-  The Government has actively supported the awareness activities being carried out by the States, implementing Insurance Companies, financial institutions, and Common Service Centres (CSCs) network to disseminate key features of PMFBY amongst farmers and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
-  Structured awareness campaign 'Crop Insurance Week/Fasal Bima Saptah' has been initiated  by  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and  Farmers Welfare  since Kharif  2021 season onwards. Along  with  this,  'Fasal  Bima  Pathshalas'  are  also  being  organized  at village/GP  level  for  knowledge  building  of  farmers  on  various  aspects  of  scheme implementation.
-  Government had also organized a nationwide  Doorstep  Crop  Insurance Policy/receipt Distribution mega drive - 'Meri Policy Mere Haath'. Hard copies of crop insurance policy receipts are distributed to farmers enrolled under PMFBY through special camps at gram Panchayat/village level.

Following technologies for Objective Crop Damage & Loss Assessment and transparency 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.

Due to the aforesaid  initiatives  taken  by  the  Government,  number  of  farmer  applications enrolled in Rajasthan have been increased from 93.56 lakh in 2016-17 to 365.72 lakh in 2024-25.

Maharashtra is one of the major States implementing the PMFBY.  State-wise details of premium paid by farmers, claims paid and number of farmer application who received claims during last  five  years  under  PMFBY  alongwith    similar  details  for  the  Palghar  and  Jalgaon  districts  of Maharasthra are given in Annexure .

| Features                              | National Agricultural Insurance Scheme/Previous Insurance Schemes                                                                                                                                                                                         | Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
|---------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Risk Transfer                         | In the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme, the claim payment amount in case of more than 100 percent loss was borne by the State and Central Government. Due to non-availability of budget on time, there was unnecessary delay in payment of claims. | The entire risk has to be borne by the insurance company. But w.e.f. Kharif 2023, Alternative Risk Transfer Methods (ARTM) of 80 : 110 and 60 : 130 have been introduced, wherein if Loss ratio is below 80 or 60%, part of the premium is returned to the State Government and claims over 110% or 130% are borne by the Government. |
| Insurance Unit                        | In the previous scheme, the insurance unit was Tehsil/Block/District, due to which claim payment was uncertain/not done properly in case of damage at the Gram Panchayat level.                                                                           | The insurance unit has been made village/Gram Panchayat, due to which maximum number of farmers get claim payment on the basis of actual loss.                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| Coverage of non-loanee farmers        | In the previous scheme, mainly the insurance of loanee farmers was done compulsorily through banks, voluntary insurance of non-loanee farmers was negligible.                                                                                             | It is voluntary for both loanee and non-loanee farmers to get insurance, and the number of non-loanee farmers among the total insured farmers in the scheme is 55% which is more than the loanee farmers.                                                                                                                             |
| Provision of local disaster:          | In the previous scheme, there was no provision for local disaster due to which if the crops of one or less farmers were damaged, they did not get compensation payment.                                                                                   | There is also a provision for local disaster in PMFBY, due to which if the crop of even a single farmer is damaged, he gets compensation payment.                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Participation of insurance companies: | In the previous scheme, the scheme was implemented in the entire country by only one insurance company,                                                                                                                                                   | A total of 20 insurance companies, 5 public and 15 private, have been paneled.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| Use of technology:                    | In the previous scheme, the calculation of crop loss was done only in the traditional way                                                                                                                                                                 | Improved technology is also being used in Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |

## PMFBY & RWBCIS: State Wise details of farmers' share in premium, claims paid and farmer applications benefitted during 2020-21 to 2024-25 as on 30 th  June, 2025

| State/UT         | Farmers Share in Premium   | Paid Claims    | Farmers Applications   |
|------------------|----------------------------|----------------|------------------------|
|                  | (Rs. In Crore)             | (Rs. In Crore) | Benefitted (In No.)    |
| A & N Islands    | 0.03                       | 0.02           | 132                    |
| Andhra Pradesh   | 32.5                       | 546.7          | 6,29,229               |
| Assam            | 19.4                       | 531.5          | 7,55,667               |
| Chhattisgarh     | 1,031.0                    | 3,554.4        | 81,90,463              |
| Goa              | 0.02                       | 0.01           | 71                     |
| Haryana          | 1,439.0                    | 5,858.8        | 61,40,350              |
| Himachal Pradesh | 141.2                      | 362.5          | 5,60,818               |
| Jammu & Kashmir  | 41.2                       | 116.9          | 2,14,692               |
| Jharkhand        | 0.3                        | -              | 36,977                 |
| Karnataka        | 1,584.2                    | 9,513.3        | 72,08,551              |
| Kerala           | 50.3                       | 460.6          | 3,08,833               |
| Madhya Pradesh   | 3,679.1                    | 12,380.2       | 2,12,76,949            |
| Maharashtra      | 2,607.7                    | 24,596.5       | 3,66,52,082            |
| Manipur          | 1.8                        | 5.1            | 9,554                  |
| Meghalaya        | 0.1                        | 23.6           | 33,539                 |
| Odisha           | 450.5                      | 2,541.3        | 83,47,096              |
| Puducherry       | 0.0                        | 8.5            | 32,644                 |
| Rajasthan        | 4,568.2                    | 16,474.2       | 3,78,38,088            |
| Sikkim           | 0.4                        | 0.0            | 64                     |
| Tamil Nadu       | 807.4                      | 5,577.1        | 1,13,58,988            |
| Tripura          | 2.1                        | 9.6            | 1,15,930               |
| Uttar Pradesh    | 1,461.6                    | 3,229.1        | 59,77,880              |
| Uttarakhand      | 257.0                      | 965.7          | 6,85,032               |
| Total            | 18,175.0                   | 86,755.8       | 14,63,73,629           |

PMFBY & RWBCIS: details of farmers' share in premium, claims paid and farmer applications benefitted in Jalgaon and Palghar districts of of Maharashtra from 2020-21 to 2024-25 as on 30 th  June, 2025

| District (Maharashtra)   | Farmers Share in premium   | Paid Claims    | Farmers Applications Benefitted (In No.)   |
|--------------------------|----------------------------|----------------|--------------------------------------------|
|                          | (Rs. In Crore)             | (Rs. In Crore) |                                            |
| Jalgaon                  | 313.1                      | 1632.8         | 10,27,813                                  |
| Palghar                  | 19.3                       | 54.3           | 42,798                                     |
| Total                    | 223.3                      | 996.9          | 20,66,137                                  |

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