Question : Withdrawal of States from PMFBY

(a) whether States are withdrawing from the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY);
(b) whether one of the reasons for the withdrawal is delay in settling the claims of farmers;
(c) if so, the details of the action taken by the Ministry to address this and other issues resulting in withdrawal of States from the scheme;
(d) whether the coverage of the PMFBY has been consistently coming down from 30 per cent (567.2 lakh hectares) in 2016-17 to 27 per cent in 2018-19 and 25 per cent (497 lakh hectares) in 2019-20); and
(e) if so, the details of the coverage in 2020-21 and the ways in which the Ministry is planning to address the issues plaguing the scheme?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a) to (e): The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is voluntary for States/UTs. The major reason for delay in settlement of claims is delayed payment of their share in premium subsidy by the States. Since inception of the scheme in Kharif 2016, 27 States/Union Territories implemented the PMFBY in one or more seasons.

Government is also regularly reviewing the implementation of Scheme in consultation with State Governments and other stakeholders to streamline the process for early settlement of claims and to provide timely benefits to the eligible farmers under the scheme.

Since inception of the scheme coverage under the scheme has been around at 29.5% of Gross Cropped Area (GCA) in the States/UTs who are implementing the scheme.

Based on the experience and feedback from the stakeholders, scheme has been revised from Rabi 2018 and revamped with effect from Kharif 2020-21 season. Brief features of revamped PMFBY are at Annexure.

The Government is regularly monitoring the implementation of PMFBY and persuading the States/UTs to notify more crops and areas under the scheme. Further, Government has taken several steps to create substantial awareness about the scheme amongst beneficiaries so that they can enroll themselves voluntarily under the scheme. The Government has made provision to ensure availability of adequate funds for awareness of PMFBY from Rabi 2018-19. The revised Operational Guidelines for PMFBY which came into effect from 1st October 2018 have provided that the insurance companies should allocate 0.5% of the total gross premium collected by them for Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities. The Government has actively supporting the awareness activities being carried out by the States, implementing Insurance Companies, financial institutions, and CSC network to disseminate key features of PMFBY amongst farmers and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).