Improved scheme to attract non-loanee farmers

The Narendra Modi government launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana early last year to replace the previous National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and its modified form. It claimed that the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana has improved upon the previous insurance schemes by trying to bring more non-loanee farmers under its coverage. Non-loanee farmers are those who have never taken a loan. The Comptroller and Auditor General, in its observations on the crop insurance taken by farmers between 2012-13 and 2015-16, had said it was “more a loan insurance than crop insurance” scheme. “At the micro-level, the claims payout is reflective of the actual local crop loss. This can be seen in districts such as Mandya, (claims 630 per cent of premium), Chitradurga (408 per cent), Mysuru (406 per cent) in Karnataka. In Tamil Nadu, the claims are higher than premium collected in virtually all the districts,” the source claimed, citing 2016-17 data to suggest the efficacy of the Yojana.