What is 'PM Fasal Bima Yojana’ under which 6.11 crore farmers are insured

New Delhi, Feb 01: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the Budget for the financial year 2020-21, said that the central government was committed to double the income of farmers by the year 2022.

She said that over 6.11 crore farmers across the country had availed the insurance benefits under the PM Fasal Bima Yojna.

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana(PMFBY) launched on 18 February 2016 by Narendra Modi is an insurance service for farmers for their yields.

It was formulated in line with One Nation-One Scheme theme by replacing earlier two schemes, National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) by incorporating their best features and removing their inherent drawbacks (shortcomings).

It aims to reduce the premium burden on farmers and ensure early settlement of crop assurance claim for the full insured sum.

PMFBY aims to provide a comprehensive insurance cover against the failure of the crop thus helping in stabilising the income of the farmers.

The Scheme covers all Food & Oilseeds crops and Annual Commercial/Horticultural Crops for which past yield data is available and for which requisite number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) are being conducted under General Crop Estimation Survey (GCES).

The scheme is implemented by empanelled general insurance companies. Selection of Implementing Agency (IA) is done by the concerned State Government through bidding. The scheme is compulsory for loanee farmers availing Crop Loan /KCC account for notified crops and voluntary for other others. The scheme is being administered by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The scheme has been beset by a number of problems for the farmers with unpaid dues in thousands of crores while insurance companies have pocketed the money.