About Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) launched on 18 February 2016 by Honourable Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi, is the government-sponsored crop insurance scheme for the farmers in India, that integrates multiple stakeholders on a single platform.
PMFBY was formulated in line with One Nation–One Scheme theme by replacing previous two schemes National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) by integrating their quality features and removing their inherent drawbacks.
The PMFBY scheme is having a target to decrease the premium burden on farmers and confirm the early settlement of crop assurance claim for the full insured sum.
Main objectives of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
- Offering financial support to the farmers who are suffering from losses or damages of crops arising out of unexpected events.
- To make a steady income of the farmers to ensure their continuation in farming
- Another objective of the scheme is to motivate the farmers to accept advanced and modern agricultural practices
- Confirming flow of credit to the agriculture sector
The scheme provides Insurance coverage to all Farmers for their crops as notified by the State Governments
Eligibility Criteria of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
Compulsory Component
All the farmers who are availing Seasonal Agricultural Operations (SAO) loans from Financial Institutions (i.e. loanee farmers) for the informed crop(s) would be covered obligatorily.
Voluntary Component
PMFBY scheme would be non-compulsory for the non-loanee farmers
Key features of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
Low Farmer Premium Rates
The rate of Insurance Charges payable by the farmer will be as per the below chart –
| Season | Crops | Maximum Insurance Charges Payable By Farmer (% Of Sum Insured) |
| Kharif | All food grain and Oilseed crops (all Cereals, Millets, Pulses and Oilseed crops) | 2.0% of SI or Actuarial rate, whichever is less |
| Rabi | All food grain and Oilseed crops (all Cereals, Millets, Pulses and Oilseed crops) | 1.5% of SI or Actuarial rate, whichever is less |
| Kharif and Rabi | Annual Commercial / Annual Horticultural crops | 5% of SI or Actuarial rate, whichever is less |
Practice of Technology
The new scheme envisages many new things such as using advanced technologies like satellite imagery, vegetation indices etc. joined with the mandatory usage of smartphones/handheld devices for increasing the speed and accurateness during harvest valuation. To minimize the area inconsistency in coverage, the scheme also endorses the digitization of land records.
Increase Consciousness in Farmers
Efforts are being made to increase the consciousness amongst farmers for PMFBY so that majority of the farmers can enrol and avail advantages of PMFBY scheme.
Improved Coverage
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) targets to cover the losses suffered by farmers because of the decrease in crop yield as estimated by the local appropriate government authorities.
The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) scheme also covers pre-sowing losses, post-harvest losses due to cyclonic rains and losses due to unseasonal rainfall in India.
