Question : National Crop Insurance Scheme

(a) the present status and impact of the National Crop Insurance Scheme on socio-economic livelihood of farmers indicating the number of farmers benefited along with the amount of fund disbursed under the scheme in the various States of the country, including Maharashtra during the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise;

(b) the norms/criteria laid down by the Government for implementation of crop insurance scheme in the country;

(c) the details of the insurance companies which are rendering services under the National Crop Insurance Scheme across the country;

(d) whether certain States including Maharashtra have not been included in the said scheme, if so, the details thereof along with the reasons therefor; and

(e) the details of the steps being taken by the Government to include all the States in the country under the said programme/ scheme and make the scheme more popular among the farmers?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

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(a): The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified NAIS have been withdrawn from Kharif 2016 season and new scheme namely, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has been introduced in place of these scheme. No study on Socio-economic impact of NAIS has been made. However, State-wise details (including Maharashtra) of claims paid and number of farmers benefitted during last three years under Crop Insurance Schemes are given in Annexure-I and II respectively.

Contd…2/-

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(b): All farmers including sharecroppers and tenant farmers growing crops in areas notified by the concerned State Government/UT administration are eligible for coverage under Crop Insurance Scheme. However, farmers should have insurable interest for the notified/insured crop. The scheme is compulsory of loanee farmers and voluntary for non-loanee farmers. The non-loanee farmers are required to submit necessary documentary evidence of land records prevailing in the State and/or applicable contract/agreement details/other documents/notified/ permitted by concerned State Govt. to the concerned insurance company.

(c): NAIS was implemented by the Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd. (AIC) only. However, to bring competition in Crop Insurance field, in addition to AIC, 11 private and 4 Public Sector general insurance companies have also been empanelled to implement the present Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

(d): The Crop Insurance scheme is voluntary for States. Government of Maharashtra is implementing the Crop Insurance Schemes since its inception.

(e): To enhance the awareness, coverage of States and to make crop insurance schemes more popular among all the stakeholders including States, Government is undertaking a comprehensive publicity and awareness programme to educate the States/farmers about the benefit of crop insurance schemes. Capacity building and training programmes for other stakeholders are also being organized. The salient activities under awareness campaign, involve the publicity of features & benefits of the scheme through advertisements in leading National/local News Papers, telecast through audio-visual media, distribution of pamphlets, participation in agriculture fairs / mela / gosti and organization of workshops / trainings and SMS through Kisan Portal etc. State Governments/UTs are also being regularly persuaded to increase the coverage including notifying more crops under crop Insurance schemes. One day seminar/kisan fair especially on the PMFBY has been organized at various Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) during March-April, 2016 throughout the country.