Union Minister for Agriculture&Farmers’ Welfare and Rural Development Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan while answering questions related to Crop Insurance Scheme in the Lok Sabha today, said that there were many difficulties in the previous crop insurance schemes, there were many crop insurance schemes in the previous governments, there were insufficient claims, the insured amount was less, there was delay in settlement of claims. Farmers and farmer organizations had many objections. Shri Chouhan further said that “I am proud to say that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi brought the new Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana”. Earlier, 3 crore 51 lakh applications were received for crop insurance and now 8 crore 69 lakh applications have been received, while the gross insured amount has increased to more than 2.71 lakh crore rupees. Farmers have paid a premium of Rs 32 thousand 404 crore and in return they have been given a claim of Rs 1.64 lakh crore.
Union Minister Shri Chouhan said that if the crop is damaged due to natural reasons, then that too is fully covered and the farmer gets its benefit. The Union Minister said that according to the old crop insurance, the loanee farmers’ was compulsorily insured and the bank itself deducted the insurance premium amount. The government has removed this anomaly and made the scheme voluntary. So far, 5 lakh 1 thousand hectares of area has been covered in it, which has increased to 5 lakh 98 thousand hectares in 2023, 3 crore 57 lakh farmers have been covered. The government has taken several measures to simplify the scheme, so that the farmer does not face any problem in taking advantage of the schemes.
Shri Chouhan said that there are 3 different models of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. The Central Government only makes the policy. The State government chooses the model it wants. After choosing the model, the insurance companies (private sector and public sector) work to implement the crop insurance scheme at competitive rates. Crop Insurance Scheme is not necessary for every state. On the question of high crop insurance premium in Bihar, Shri Chouhan said that the State government has not implemented the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in Bihar. Bihar state has its own crop insurance scheme, according to which the farmer has to pay the premium.
Shri Chouhan said that Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is for every district of the country. Earlier there were discrepancies in the unit of the scheme that the block itself was made the unit. Now the Gram Panchayat has been made the unit, so that if a farmer in the Gram Panchayat incurs loss, his loss can be compensated properly. The shortcomings of the earlier schemes have been removed. Also, it has been made mandatory to conduct at least 4 crop cutting experiments in every Gram Panchayat. Innovating under the guidance of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, it has been made mandatory to assess the crop loss of at least 30 percent through remote sensing. He said that this is the reason why there is a delay in the payment of claims. The claim is calculated within a month of the availability of yield data from the state government. If the central government makes a policy, then it is the responsibility of the state government to implement it properly. If there is a delay in the payment of those claims, then a provision has been made that if the insurance company delays, then a penalty of 12 percent will be imposed on it, which will be deposited directly into the farmer’s account.
Union Agriculture Minister further said that when we looked at the reasons for the delay in insurance payments, 98.5 percent of the reasons were the delay in the release of premium amount by the state governments. Shri Chouhan requested to the state governments not to delay the release of premium amount from their side. He further said that 99 percent of the delay is because sometimes the yield data is received late, in some cases there is a dispute between the insurance companies and the state governments, sometimes the numbers of the farmers are wrong, these reasons also cause delay. Shri Chouhan said that we have made a provision that Central Government de-linked ourselves from the State share, so that there is no delay in the payment of the farmer. The Central Government releases its share immediately so that the farmers can get the payment of the Central share. From this Kharif season, the work of payment will be done directly in the farmer’s account by imposing a penalty of 12 percent. As far as the question of forming a committee about the scheme is concerned, I do not feel the need for it today, if the members want to give any suggestion, they are welcome.
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