87 lakh farmers opt for insurance this Kharif season

Mumbai: The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has got a good response this year in comparison to last year. 87 lakh farmers have opted for the insurance scheme till August 10 for the Kharif season. Last year, 83 lakh farmers had taken the insurance scheme. The sharp increase in the figures is owing to the promises on crop-damage compensation made by the insurance company, said sources.

Compensations worth Rs 2,500 crore were distributed to 45 lakh farmers last year when the cotton, paddy and soybean crops had been badly affected. The state has been suffering from the agrarian crises from last of couple of years. The Central government had brought this PMFBY three years ago to provide the farmers at least their input costs, which they are putting for cultivating crops in case of damage due to natural calamities, short of rainfall or drought. To get PMFBY, the farmers have to contribute two per cent of the premium and remaining 98 per cent are paid by the state and the Centre.

An officer of agriculture department said, “The centre and the state will have to pay Rs 3,500 crore for premium of the PMFBY this year. The company will pay 3.5 times of the premium in case of the damage of the crops.”  

According to the Data, Latur division, which is infamous for drought, have highest number of farmers i.e. 33,87,167 who have opted for the PMFBY, while 55,012 farmers of the Konkan division took the insurance cover.  

PMFBY has been made compulsory to the loanee farmers. The loanee farmers, who taken loan for Kharif season in Maharashtra, are 10,22,628 in 2018, while in 2017 the count was 18,89,264. Around 83,59,230 farmers had taken insurance cover in 2017, while in 2018 the total numbers of the farmers have increased to 87,27,605.