Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and Rural Development Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, while answering questions related to Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana during Question Hour in Parliament today, said that there were many difficulties in the previous crop insurance schemes, there was high premium for farmers, there was delay in settlement of claims, farmers and farmer organizations had many objections. Shri Narendra Modi brought the new Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and since this scheme has come, you can compare it, earlier only 3.51 crore applications used to come, but now 8.69 crore applications have come because farmers have confidence. When the earlier government was in power, only 20 lakh applications used to come from non-loanee farmers, now 5.48 crore have come. The total farmer applications in the earlier government were 3.71 crore, which is now 14.17 crore. Farmers paid Rs 32,440 crore premium, while they were given a claim of Rs 1.64 lakh crore.
Agriculture Minister Shri Shivraj Singh said that in the old crop insurance scheme, insurance was done compulsorily and the banks used to deduct the premium amount of the insurance on their own. Our government has removed this anomaly. Now if the farmer wishes, he can get insurance and if he does not wish, he should not. Shri Chouhan said that earlier the debt-free farmer did not get insurance, but now he can also get insurance if he wants. So far, 5 lakh 1 thousand hectares have been covered in it, which has increased to 5.98 lakh hectares in 2023, while 3.97 crore farmers have been covered and farmers are continuously adopting the crop insurance scheme. The government has taken many measures to simplify the scheme, so that farmers do not face any problem and trouble in taking advantage of the scheme.
Union Minister Shri Chouhan said that another innovation has been done under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Now it has been made mandatory to assess the loss not visually but through remote sensing at least 30 percent. Many times there is a delay in claim payment. If there is a delay, the insurance company will pay a 12% penalty, which will go directly to the farmer’s account. If we look at the reasons for the delay, the biggest reason is the delay in releasing their share in premium subsidy by most states. He said that I request all the state governments not to delay in releasing their share. Many times the yield data is received late. In some cases, disputes arise between the insurance company and the states. Earlier there was a system that when the state government released its amount, only then the central government would give its share, but the central government has now made a provision and has de-linked itself from the state government’s share, so now the Center will release its share immediately, so that there is no delay in the payment to the farmer. The farmer should at least get the amount from the Center on time.
Mr. Chouhan said that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is for every district and every farmer of the entire country. There are 3 different models of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima and in those models the central government only makes the policy. The state government chooses the model it wants. This Fasal Bima Yojana is not necessary for every state, the states which want to adopt this scheme can adopt it and the states which do not want to adopt it cannot. At the same time, Mr. Chouhan said that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has not been implemented in Bihar yet. Bihar has its own scheme; they benefit their farmers according to that scheme.
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