By A Kumar
Agriculture is the backbone of India in terms of people engaged in this activity and dependent on it. There is already Crop Insurance Scheme but it is not able to meet the expectation of the farmers. Therefore, only those farmers are covered who have availed loan from any institution. The full benefit of existing Crop insurance cover is not serve the intended purpose and the suicide of farmers among some states particularly adopting Cash Crop are at very alarming level. The awareness among farmers about old scheme is also very low. As per available information center is paying insurance premium to the tune of Rs.3000 crore annually. Presently, such insurance is named as National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified NAIS (MNIAS) and climate -based crop insurance scheme which is in vogue since 1985.
Existing Crop Insurance scheme at a glance as under:
As per existing crop insurance schemes NAIS (National Agricultural Insurance Scheme) and MNAIS, farmers are paying a premium of up to 3.5 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, and the balance amount is being borne by the government.
Insurance firms are charging premium in the range between 1 and 20 per cent for crops.
As per r MNAIS, premiums are capped at 13 per cent in most vulnerable areas for kharif crops, while 11 per cent for rabi crops.
As per available record with the Government, nearly 20 per cent (40.27 million hectares) of the total farm land is insured under the existing schemes which is quite low an inadequate.
In Rajasthan, the maximum area insured at 12.26 million hectare followed by followed by Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
The Centre is implementing various farm insurance schemes since 1985, to insulate farmers against agri—risks.
In the backdrop of above dismal condition the Present Government of India has given nod on 13.01.2016 for New Crop Insurance Scheme named the scheme as the Pradhan Mnatri Fasal Bima Yojna which has to be implemented for Kharif Crops 2016 from next month.
It has been formulated in such a way that new insurance scheme can address all the previous shortcoming and also formulated some new initiative to mitigate the loss of Crops of farmers.
The salient points are as under :
- The new crop schemes have been prepared after extensive consultations with various stakeholders including Ministries/Department, NITI Aayog, State Governments, Insurance regulatory and Development Authority, insurance companies etc. and its core of essence is farmer friendly.
- Farmer will pay premium at 2.% for Kharif Crops, 1.5 % for Rabi Crops and 5% for Horticulture to be paid annually of the sum assured.
- The total amount of premium has been estimated to the tune of Rs.8000 crore to be shared by center and state in the ratio of 50:50.
- It has been designed in such a way to be cost effective insurance premium, and by use of technology easy implementation and also proposed insurance claim to be settled hassle free within a time frame. The scheme will use tech products such as smart phones and drones to capture and upload data of crop cutting in order to reduce delays in claim payments to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments. It will also help to estimate actual loss promptly.
- ¼ of the compensation to be paid directly into the farmer’s bank account.
- It will provide coverage against localised risks of hailstorms, landslides and inundation as well as post-harvest losses up to 14 days of harvesting of cyclonic and unseasonal rains.
- There is no upper limit of government subsidy. Capping of actuarial premium rates has been removed that existed in the Modified NAIS scheme effective since 2010.
- Farmers not only pay lower premiums but also avail full sum insured unlike the capping previously.
- Effective steps to be taken to increase coverage of area under crop insurance schemes from 23% at present to 50% of gross cropped area within next three years.
- If sum insured of Rs. 30 thousand, the farmers would now pay only Rs. 600 as premium and government would pay Rs. 6000 as premium. In case of complete damage, the premiums for farmers have been slashed to Rs. 600 from existing Rs. 900. Claim amount has been increased from existing Rs. 15 thousand to Rs. 30 thousand. If an insured farmer, due to any natural calamity, isn’t able to sow, still the farmer would be liable to get the claimed amount.
- Two new mobile phone applications launched simulataneous to help farmers get information related to crop insurance and prices of agri- commodities in different mandis across the country.These two applicatined named AgriMarket Mobile App and Crop Insurance Mobile App designed and developed by the in-house IT division of the Agriculture Ministry.It is also downloaded from Google Store or mKisan portal available in Hindi and English . Farmers will able to get information related to crop insurance cover available, and also calculate the premium for notified crops based on area, coverage amount and loan amount, of normal sum insured, extended sum insured and subsidy information of any notified crop in any notified area. Additionally, more importantly it is now possible to get information related to prices of crops in markets within 50 km of their own device location using the AgriMarket Mobile App as the app automatically captures the location of the farmers using mobile GPS and fetches the market prices of crops in markets which fall within the range of 50 km.
It can also be seen that how the new scheme stands different from previous one :
Following the motto, One Nation – One Scheme theme, incorporating the best features of all previous schemes and at the same time, all previous shortcomings/weaknesses/deficiencies have been addressed to the benefit of farmers :
.
Sr. No | Feature | NAIS[1999] | MNAIS[2010] | PM Crop Insurance Scheme |
1. | Premium rate | Low | High | Lower than even NAIS(Govt to contribute 5 times that of farmer) |
2. | One Season – One Premium | Yes | No | Yes |
3. | Insurance Amount cover | Full | Capped | Full |
4. | On Account Payment | No | Yes | Yes |
5. | Localised Risk coverage | No | Hail stormLand slide | Hail stormLand slideInundation |
6. | Post Harvest Losses coverage | No | Coastal areas – for cyclonic rain |
All India – for cyclonic + unseasonal rain |
7. | Prevented Sowing coverage | No | Yes | Yes |
8. | Use of Technology (for quicker settlement of claims) |
No | Intended | Mandatory |
9. | Awareness | No | No | Yes (target to double coverage to |
So the new scheme if implemented in letter and spirit, which has been made keeping in view higher coverage and use of latest technology to get compensation, proved a historical one and will surely address the farmers interest well.
As our respected Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi style, this has been given as new year gift to impetuous and boost the agriculture growth and save farmers from loss of crops due to so many factors. It will also help to sutaianble growth of agriculture sector and improve the economical condition of small and marginal farmer.
Undoubtedly, the above said scheme is well conceived keeping farmer interest supreme. If India has to become number one economical super power, it is necessary to improve conditions of farmer both quantitavely and qualitatively. If the farmer gets enough income, the migration of farmers towards metropolitan city will certainly decrease. This scheme is very well intended and have far reaching positive consequences if it is implemented with vigor and enthusiasm.