Completion of 5 Years of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana – All India Radio (AIR) IAS UPSC

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Search 13th January, 2021 Spotlight News Analysis here: http://www.newsonair.com/Main_Audio_Bulletins_Search.aspx

Topic: General Studies 3:

• Policies and Interventions in Agriculture

In News: Crop Insurance Scheme- The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yajana (PMFBY) successfully completed 5 Years of operations on 13th January 2021.

• The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was launched in 2016. 
• It is an insurance service scheme for farmers for their yields which aims to reduce the premium burden on farmers and ensure early settlement of crop assurance claim for the full insured sum.

Implemented by: Empanelled general insurance companies

Administered by: Ministry of Agriculture

Objectives:

1. To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.
2. To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.
3. To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.
4. To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.

Features

• It was formulated in line with One Nation–One Scheme theme by replacing earlier two schemes National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS).
• The Scheme covers all Food & Oilseeds crops and Annual Commercial/Horticultural Crops for which past yield data is available and for which requisite number of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) are being conducted under General Crop Estimation Survey (GCES).
• The scheme is compulsory for loanee farmers availing Crop Loan /KCC account for notified crops and voluntary for others. 

Connecting the dots:

1. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is seen as a game changer over previous insurance schemes. However, its effective implementation faces some impediments. Discuss.
2. Discuss the objectives and design of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. Examine how different is it from earlier Agri-Insurance schemes.