PMFBY: Working Group set up

Sakshi Education

The Central Government has set up a working group, with the aim of rolling out an overhauled Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from kharif season 2022. This working group has been constituted comprising of officials from Centre, top executives of public sector insurance companies and key crop-producing states.

Working group will suggest “sustainable, financial and operational models.” It was constituted after several states quit the scheme, which in turn defeats the objective of protecting income of farmers.

The working group will be set up as centre identified a hardening of premium market, inadequate underwriting capacity of insurers and lack of sufficient participation in tenders as major issues, impacting PMFBY during implementation of the scheme. Under the scheme, premium that farmers are required to fix is 1.5% of the sum insured for rabi crops while 2% for Kharif crops. It is 5% for cash crops under PMFBY. Rest of the premium is split between the Centre and states.

Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar have exited the scheme, till date. Punjab did not implement the crop insurance scheme. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal have launched their own schemes under which farmers do not pay any premium, however they receive a fixed compensation amount in case of crop failure.

Published date : 20 Oct 2021 06:57PM