Question : Insurance Scheme

(a) whether the Government has formulated any insurance scheme through the Oriental Insurance Company Limited and the National Insurance Company Limited for farmers in the country including Maharashtra and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the details of the steps taken by the Government to formulate farmers friendly effective Crop insurance Premium for farmers across the nation;

(c) the total number of farmers who have got their crops insured during the last financial year under the existing Crop Insurance Schemes, along with the premium paid by the farmers and the claims sanctioned by the Insurance companies and paid to the farmers on account of damage to their crops, State-wise;

(d) whether the Government is planning to change the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme-1999 and if so, the salient features of the new scheme and its effectiveness so far; and

(e) whether the Government is providing subsidy to the farmers for paying insurance premium and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a) to (e): Government has recently reviewed the existing crop insurance schemes in consultation with various stakeholders including States, farmer organisations, insurance companies etc. and introduced more farmer friendly Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) from Kharif 2016 season in place of National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS ) and Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS).

The Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) has also been restricted by making the premium of the farmers, selection of insurance company and administrative & operational structure at par with PMFBY.

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In addition, a Unified Package Insurance Scheme (UPIS) has also been approved for implementation on pilot basis from Kharif 2016 season to cover the other assets/activities like machinery, life, accident, house and student-safety for farmers alongwith their notified crops under PMFBY/WBCIS.

The PMFBY, WBCIS and UPIS are being implemented through empanelled public sector (including Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. and National Insurance Company and Ltd.) and private sector general insurance companies. Farmer’s share in premium for food & oilseeds crops has been fixed at maximum 2% and 1.5% of sum insured for food & oilseed crops for Kharif and Rabi seasons respectively. In case of annual commercial/horticultural crops maximum premium is 5%. The remaining part of the actuarial premium would be shared by the Central and State Governments as subsidy in premium on 50:50 basis. Salient features of the scheme are at Annexure-I.

State-wise details of farmers insured, premium paid by the farmers and the claims paid by insurance companies under WBCIS and erstwhile NAIS & MNAIS during last Kharif 2015 and Kharif 2015-16 seasons are given in Annexure-II.