In Maharashtra, linking land records to PM Fasal Bima saves time, plugs leaks

News:Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to integrate its land records with the web portal of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana(PMFBY).

Facts:

• The integration of land records with the PMFBY has helped in saving of time and plugging leakages as the land records will be available online.
• It also does away with the need for village revenue officer’s signature which will guard against crop insurance fraud.
• Maharashtra is also among the top five states in the country in terms of payment of claims under the PMFBY.

About Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana(PMFBY):

• The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme) was launched in 2016.
• The scheme has replaced the two schemes namely the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme(NAIS) as well as the Modified NAIS.
• The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Objectives of the scheme:

• Providing financial support to farmers suffering crop loss/damage arising out of unforeseen events.
• Stabilizing the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.
• Encouraging farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.
• Ensuring flow of credit to the agriculture sector which contributes to food security, crop diversification and enhancing growth and competitiveness of the agriculture sector besides protecting farmers from production risks.

Features of the scheme:

• The scheme envisages a uniform premium of 2% to be paid by farmers for Kharif crops and 1.5% for Rabi crops.The premium for annual commercial and horticultural crops will be 5%.
• The scheme is mandatory for farmers who have taken institutional loans from banks. It’s optional for farmers who have not taken institutional credit.
• The scheme is open to all food and oilseeds crops and annual commercial horticultural crops for which past yield data is available and for which the requisite number of Crop Cutting Experiments are conducted as part of the General Crop Estimation Survey(GCES).
• The scheme is implemented by empanelled general insurance companies.The selection of the Implementing Agency (IA) is done by the concerned State Government through bidding.