A farmer who loses a standing crop to hail gets one kind of payout. A farmer whose harvested grain rots in a cyclone, days after cutting it, gets a different one — under the same scheme. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana insures both.
🌾 Must Know
1. Launch and Purpose
- Launch The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched on 13 January 2016. It is India’s flagship crop insurance scheme.
- Purpose PMFBY protects farmers against crop loss from natural calamities, pests, and diseases. It gives farmers a stable income even after a bad season.
- Nodal Ministry It is run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
2. Premium Is Not Uniform Across Crops
- Not Uniform Farmers do not pay a single flat premium rate. The rate depends on the crop and the season.
- Kharif Farmers pay a maximum of 2% of the sum insured for Kharif food and oilseed crops.
- Rabi Farmers pay a maximum of 1.5% for Rabi food and oilseed crops.
- Commercial/Horticultural Farmers pay a maximum of 5% for annual commercial and horticultural crops.
- Government Share The government pays the rest of the actuarial premium, split between the Centre and the state. There is no upper cap on this government share, even if the actuarial premium is very high.
3. What Risks PMFBY Covers
- Prevented Sowing PMFBY covers a farmer’s inability to sow or plant a crop, because of adverse weather.
- Standing Crop It covers yield losses to a standing crop, from sowing until harvest, against non-preventable risks like drought, flood, pests, and disease.
- Post-Harvest Losses It covers harvested crops too. Crops left to dry in the field, in “cut and spread” condition, are covered for up to 14 days after harvest.
- Post-Harvest Risks This post-harvest cover applies specifically against cyclones, cyclonic rains, and unseasonal rains, anywhere in the country.
- Localised Calamities PMFBY also covers localised risks like hailstorm, landslide, and inundation, on an individual-farm basis.
4. Replaced Two Older Schemes
- Predecessors PMFBY replaced the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and the Modified NAIS (MNAIS).
- Why The older schemes were criticised for delayed claim settlements and inadequate coverage. PMFBY was designed to fix both.
📋 Good to Know
5. Enrolment Is Now Voluntary
- 2020 Change From Kharif 2020, PMFBY became voluntary for every farmer, including loanee farmers.
- Before 2020 Before this change, enrolment was compulsory for farmers who had taken a crop loan.
6. How the Subsidy Is Shared
- 50:50 The Centre and most states share the premium subsidy equally, on a 50:50 basis.
- 90:10 For North Eastern states, the Centre bears a larger 90% share, to encourage wider adoption.
7. Technology Used for Faster Claims
- Tech Stack PMFBY uses satellite imagery, drones, and remote sensing to estimate crop area and yield.
- CCEs These tools support Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs), the ground-truth method used to estimate actual yield loss.
- App-Based Reporting Farmers can report localised crop loss directly, using the Crop Insurance App, with geotagged photographs.
8. National Crop Insurance Portal
- Platform The National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) is the digital backbone of PMFBY. It handles enrolment, premium subsidy, and claims processing.
Test Yourself
⚡ Great to Know
9. A Decade of Claims Data
- Data Between 2016 and 2025, PMFBY paid out about ₹1.92 lakh crore in claims to farmers. (Source: PIB)
10. Distinguishing PMFBY from a Related Scheme
- Not the Same PMFBY insures crop loss. It is a different scheme from the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system, which guarantees a floor price, not an insurance payout.
📰 Current Affairs
From Kharif 2026: Wild-Animal Damage and Paddy Inundation Added
- Policy From Kharif 2026, PMFBY adds a fifth localised-risk add-on cover: crop loss from wild-animal attacks. It applies to elephants, wild boars, nilgai, deer, and monkeys.
- Policy Paddy inundation cover also returns. It was dropped from the localised-calamity list in 2018, over assessment difficulties, and has now been re-included.
- So What? States must still notify which risks and districts these add-ons apply to, so actual coverage will vary state by state. (Source: PIB)
📝 Previous Year Question
UPSC CSP 2016 — Premium and Post-Harvest Cover
- UPSC 2016 Asked as: “With reference to ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’, consider the following statements”. It tested the uniform-premium claim and the post-harvest cyclone/unseasonal-rain cover. The correct answer is (b) 2 only. See UPSC CSP 2016 GS Paper I, Q21.
Leave a Reply