Early relief far cry as none in State got claims under PM Fasal Bima Yojana in 2017-18
In the flood fury that has severely impacted a large section of over 19 lakh farmers in Kerala, only 46,136 have insured their crops under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) in 2017-18. The number of Kerala farmers who insured their crops is fewer than those in other States, which reflects that farmers are still unaware of the details of the PMFBY.
Interestingly, the number of insured farmers declined from 77,000 in 2016-17 to 46,136 in 2017-18. Even these insured farmers cannot hope for an early relief. The Agriculture Ministry data shows the insurance companies are yet to settle claims for kharif and rabi crops under the PMFBY in the State. Not a single farmer got his claims under the PMFBY in 2017-18. Similarly, in 2016-17, as many as 77,000 farmers insured their crops and only 23,300 received their claims.
Due to flood and rain in all districts in Kerala, around 42,632 hectares of agricultural land have reportedly been destroyed and the initial estimates put the loss at around Rs 1,000 crore. Meanwhile, the Union Finance Ministry has directed insurance companies to simplify and settle insurance claims under the PMFBY to flood victims in Kerala.
During rabi season in 2016-17, of the total 45,874 farmers who insured the crops, only 2,200 were found eligible for insurance claims. During kharif season, 21,000 farmers received the insurance claims against 31,500. According to sources, insurance companies, in many cases did not investigate losses due to a localised calamity and, therefore, did not pay claims.
The Kerala Government has fixed cutoff date as August 15, 2018, for kharif crops.
Sources said the crop cutting experiment (CCE) data, which forms a key element of the PMFBY, is the main reason for delay of insurance claims. CCE data at the harvest time helps assessing yield loss, and it requires substantial manpower. At present, State Governments are responsible for conducting experiments.
Officials said that according to insurers, CCEs were not properly conducted. While in some cases, the experiments were not conducted on the date intimated to the insurers, in others data presented by the State Government did not match ground realities.
The Agriculture Ministry data, in 2017-18 insurance companies collected over Rs 24,450 crore as premium even after the delay by States in forking out their subsidy contribution. The Agriculture Ministry claimed insurance companies settled Rs 11,899-crore claims under the PMFBY for kharif in 2017. “The claims of Rs 16,448 crore have been estimated and Rs 13,768 crore has been approved. Out of which, Rs 11,899 crore has been settled by the insurance companies,” Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
In 2016-17, gross premium collections — both charged to farmers as well as subsidy received from the Centre and States — amounted to Rs 22,180 crore. As against this, total claims of Rs 15,352 crore were paid to the farmers.
The data shows over 1.20 crore farmers have benefited from the crop insurance scheme during the kharif season last year and the rabi season in 2016-17 as compared to 1.62 crore in 2013-14.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has said the insurance companies should follow a procedure similar to the one used to settle claims after the Chennai floods in 2015.