Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), launched in 2016, is a crop insurance scheme designed to provide financial support to Indian farmers against crop losses from natural calamities, pests, and diseases. It covers risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest stages, operating on a unified 'One Nation, One Crop, One Premium' principle. PMFBY aims to stabilize farmers' incomes and encourage new agricultural practices by offering comprehensive protection, including the removal of premium capping for full claim amounts. The scheme also covers localized disasters like hailstorms and floods, and post-harvest losses due to cyclones and heavy rains.

PMFBY integrates advanced technologies to streamline crop loss assessment and claim processing. It leverages Remote Sensing, Smartphones, and Drones for efficiency. The National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) digitizes interactions among farmers, insurers, and banks. YES-TECH (Yield Estimation System Based on Technology) uses remote sensing for accurate yield estimations, while CROPIC (Collection of Real-time photos and Observations of Crops) utilizes geotagged photographs for verifying crops and assessing damage precisely. These technological inclusions benefit both farmers and insurance operations.

Despite its comprehensive design, the PMFBY faces implementation challenges. A study in the Udalguri district revealed that a negligible number of beneficiaries actually benefited from the Yojana. This limited reach is attributed to factors such as a lack of awareness, communication gaps, illiteracy among farmers, and complicated application and claiming procedures, hindering access to the scheme's benefits.