Union Government has approved Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to provide a social security net to millions of farmers across the country, who have been reeling under the impact of two consecutive droughts. The scheme will have low premiums as low as 1.5 per cent of the sum insured.
There will be a premium of two per cent of the sum insured from farmers for all kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for rabi crops. For horticulture crops, the annual premium will be five per cent of the sum insured. The balance premium would be paid by the government to the insurance companies. This would be shared equally by the Centre and state governments.
Currently, the average premium for all foodgrain crops was as high as 15 per cent, while for horticulture crops, it was even higher.
Digital Initiative is also there with data for crop cutting experiments could be uploaded through smartphones, mobiles, drones etc to speed up the claim process. The unit of assessment would be individual farms, against villages in the current insurance schemes.
All the districts in India has been divided into clusters for distribution among insurance companies on a long-term basis to bring about uniformity in premium rates.
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