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Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Written By Gautham Krishna | Published on March 03, 2019

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) aims at supporting sustainable production in the agriculture sector by way of

providing financial support to farmers suffering crop loss/damage arising out of unforeseen events
stabilizing the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming
encouraging farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices
ensuring flow of credit to the agriculture sector; which will contribute to food security, crop diversification and enhancing growth and competitiveness of agriculture sector besides protecting farmers from production risks.

Key features of the scheme are the following.

Providing financial support to farmers suffering crop loss/damage due to unforeseen events
Stabilizing the income of farmers
Encouraging farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices
Ensuring flow of credit to the agriculture sector
Three level of indemnity 70, 80 and 90
Sum Insured equivalent to scale of finance
Scheme envisages many new things such as utilizing innovative technologies like satellite imagery, vegetation indices etc. coupled with the mandatory usage of smart phones / handheld devices for increasing the speed and accuracy during yield estimation.
Digitization of CCEs including geo-tagging, date-time stamping and photographs
Single series data for production estimates and insurance
Access to Insurance Company for co-observance of CCEs
Written information to IC about CCE schedule by State Govt.
Usage of RST, Drone and Mobile technology to aid CCEs and yield assessment

Benefits

Benefits of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana are provided below.

Farmer's contribution to premium is reduced significantly i.e. 2% for Kharif crops, 1.5% for Rabi crops and 5% for Annual and Commercial crops.
Provision to assess the losses individually in case of localized perils such as hailstorm, inundation and landslide.
Assessment of yield loss on individual plot basis in case of occurrence of cyclone, cyclonic rains and unseasonal rains throughout the country resulting in damage to harvested crop lying in the field in 'cut and spread' condition up to maximum period of two weeks (14 days) from harvesting for the sole purpose of drying.
On-account claim payment is made to the farmer in case of prevented sowing and localized losses.
The use of technology will be encouraged to a great extent under this scheme.Smart phones will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers. Remote sensing will also be used under this scheme to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments.

Eligibility Criteria

All farmers including sharecroppers and tenant farmers growing notified crops in the notified areas are eligible under this scheme

Notified Crops

The Scheme can cover all the Crops for which past yield data is available and grown during the notified season, in a Notified Area and for which yield estimation at the Notified Area level will be available based on requisite number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) being a part of the General Crop Estimation Survey (GCES).

Crops includes

Food crops (Cereals ,Millets and Pulses)
Oilseeds
Annual Commercial / Annual Horticultural crops

In addition for perennial crops, pilots for coverage can be taken for those perennial horticultural crops for which standard methodology for yield estimation is available.

Notified Area

Notified Area is the Unit of Insurance decided by the State Govt. for notifying a Crop during a season. The size of the Unit of Insurance shall depend on the area under cultivation within the unit. For major crops, the Unit of Insurance shall ordinarily be Village/Village Panchayat level and for minor crops may be at a higher level so that the requisite number of CCEs could be conducted during the notified crop season. States may notify Village / Village Panchayat as insurance unit in case of minor crops too if they so desire.

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana scheme has two components, which provides coverage to the farmers (loanee & non-loanee):

Compulsory component: All the loanee farmers are compulsorily covered and provided insurance as per the provisions mentioned in the scheme.

Voluntary component: This component is optional for non-loanee farmers. The procedure to opt for this component is:
1. The farmers willing to avail this benefit should approach the nearest bank / authorized channel partner of the insurance company before the mentioned cutoff date.
2. They should fill-up the proposal form and provide the details of their saving bank account & land identification number with all the necessary documents.
3. The farmers will need to submit this form along with the premium amount to the bank/ authorized channel partner of the insurance company.

Documents Required

Loanee farmers are compulsorily insured through the banks from where they avail their crop loan.They dont need to provide any documents.

The non-loanee farmers are required to submit necessary documentary evidence of land records prevailing in the State (Records of Right (RoR), Land possession Certificate (LPC) etc.) and/ or applicable contract/ agreement details/ other documents notified/ permitted by concerned State Govt. in case of sharecroppers/tenant farmers and the same is defined by the respective States in the notification itself.

Apply for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Loanee farmers are compulsorily insured through the banks from where they avail their crop loan.

Non-Loanee farmers can insure their crop either by visiting CSC centres or offices of insurance companies. Farmers can also approach banks or agents & brokers of insurance companies, or online on the farmer portal as well.

All the farmers who have availed loans from one or more financial institutions for Seasonal Agricultural Operations (SAO) of the notified crops are referred to as loanee farmers. Whereas, the farmers who have not availed any loan from any recognized financial institution are referred to as non-loanee farmers.

Coverage and Exclusions

Following risks leading to crop loss are to be covered under the scheme :

1. YIELD LOSSES (standing crops, on notified area basis): Comprehensive risk insurance is provided to cover yield losses due to non-preventable risks, such as

Natural Fire and Lightning
Storm, Hailstorm, Cyclone, Typhoon, Tempest, Hurricane, Tornado etc. Flood, Inundation and Landslide
Drought, Dry spells
Pests/ Diseases etc.

2. PREVENTED SOWING (on notified area basis):- In cases where majority of the insured farmers of a notified area, having intent to sow/plant and incurred expenditure for the purpose, are prevented from sowing/planting the insured crop due to adverse weather conditions, shall be eligible for indemnity claims upto a maximum of 25% of the sum-insured.

3. POST-HARVEST LOSSES (individual farm basis): Coverage is available upto a maximum period of 14 days from harvesting for those crops which are kept in “cut & spread” condition to dry in the field after harvesting, against specific perils of cyclone / cyclonic rains, unseasonal rains throughout the country.

4. LOCALISED CALAMITIES (individual farm basis): Loss/damage resulting from occurrence of identified localized risks i.e. hailstorm, landslide, and Inundation affecting isolated farms in the notified area.

Exclusions

However, Risks and Losses arising out of following perils shall be excluded:-

War & kindred perils, nuclear risks, riots, malicious damage, theft, act of enmity, grazed and/or destroyed by domestic and/or wild animals, In case of Post–Harvest losses the harvested crop bundled and heaped at a place before threshing, other preventable risks.

Procedure to Claim Losses

Claims procedure for localised losses:

Farmers may intimate the details of the loss within 72 hours of the calamity either to us or the concerned bank or local agriculture department / district officials.
Intimation must contain details of survey number-wise insured crop and the acreage affected along with bank account number (Loanee famer) and saving bank account no (Non Loanee Farmer).
A surveyor will be appointed within 48 hours and the loss assessment will be completed within 72 hours of appointment of surveyor.
The premium payment done by the farmer will be verified from bank or farmer portal within 7 days of loss intimation.
The applicable pay-out based on the cover will be disbursed within 15 days of the survey of loss. However, it is to be noted that we can remit claims only post receipt of 50% of government share of premium subsidy.

Claims procedure for prevented sowing:

There is no need for the insured farmer to intimate the insurance company losses due to prevented sowing, as this will be a widespread calamity and assessment is based on area approach. This benefit is triggered when majority of farmers are unable to sow their crop because of weather conditions. The details are as below:

The insured farmers shall be paid the claim under prevented sowing if minimum 75% of the sown area of major crop in the notified Insurance Unit (IU) remains unsown or has suffered germination failure due to wide spread calamities such as drought or flood.
This provision needs to be invoked by State Government within 15 days of the cut-off date of enrolment.
The insurance company would pay the claim within 30 days of the state notification of the prevented sowing, subject to the data on estimated sown area having been received from State Government and receipt of advance subsidy (1st instalment ) from government.
Insurance cover will cease post the payment of 25% of Sum Insured to farmers as final claims.
Once the claim is paid under prevented sowing, no fresh enrolment of farmers for the affected notified IU's and crop would be accepted. This applies to all the farmers in the notified Insurance Units.

Claims procedure for widespread calamities:

This cover pays for the shortage in yield of the insured crop compared to Threshold Yield (TY) on area approach.

If the Actual Yield (AY) of the insured crop in the Insured Unit (IU) is less than Threshold Yield of the insured crop in the IU then all the insured farmers in the Insurance Unit growing the same crop are assumed to have suffered the loss. The claim is calculated as:

((Threshold Yield - Actual Yield)/ (Threshold Yield))* (Sum Insured)

Where, AY is calculated on the no. of CCE's done in the Insurance unit and TY is calculated as the average of the best of 5 years from the last seven years.

Claims procedure for Mid-season calamity:

This cover is to provide immediate relief to farmers in case of any widespread calamity or adverse season, wherein the expected yield during the season is likely to be less than 50% of normal yield.

If due to adverse severe seasonal conditions such as severe drought, dry spells and drought declared by state/UT, abnormally low temperatures, wide spread incidence of insects, pests and diseases and natural events such as floods resulting in wide spread loss, the expected yield of the insured crop is less than 50% than the normal yield then the mid-season calamity claim is paid to the insured farmer.
Under this claim, the amount is payable to the insured farmer directly on account and shall be 25% of the total Sum Inured.
The timeline of the mid-season adversity to be triggered is post one month after the crop sowing and before 15 days of the harvest time.
The State Government would notify within 7 days regarding the mid-season adversity and the loss assessment has to be done within the next 15 days from the occurrence of adverse seasonal events.
The district level joint committee would assess the claim and decide whether the claim is payable under this condition.
The on account payment would be calculated as:

((Threshold Yield - Actual Yield)/ (Threshold Yield))* (Sum Insured)*25%

Claim procedure for Post-harvest losses:

Post-harvest yield loss is assessed on individual plot/farm occurring due to hailstorm, cyclone, cyclonic rains and unseasonal rainfall when the harvested crop is kept lying on the fields "in cut and spread" condition for drying of the crop up to 14 days from harvesting of the crop. In such cases on individual basis the claim shall be paid to the insured farmers by the insurance company.
The farmer must intimate the loss within 72 hours to the insurance company, concerned bank, agriculture department, district officials. This can be done using the toll free number provided by the insurance company.
The insurance company will appoint the surveyor within 48 hours after receiving the complaint. The loss assessment should be completed within 10 days from appointed of the surveyor.
The claim would be paid within 15 days from the loss assessment. The percentage of loss shall be assessed through this loss assessment.
If the affected area is more than 25% of the total cropped area, then all the farmers in the insurance unit would be deemed to have suffered the loss and the claim would be paid to all insured farmers.

FAQs

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Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana queries and its answers

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