Haryana farmers’ crop insurance relief exceeds premium paid
Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 24
Farmers in the state received more money in claims than the premium collectively paid by them and the government under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in the past three years.
‘Meticulous negotiations, follow-ups helped’
- Sanjeev Kaushal, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, claimed the higher claims were largely due to “meticulous” negotiations with insurance companies for premium as well as regular follow-up of farmers’ pending claims
- Our district level monitoring committees set up under DCs and the state level monitoring committee to resolve disputes between farmers and the insurance companies have been doing their job well by resolving cases in time, he said
- A total of 13,509 grievances went to district level monitoring committees this year, of which 6,435 were pending with banks, 2,908 with insurance companies and 4,166 grievances were sorted out in the past three months
Ever since the PMFBY was launched in Haryana during kharif 2016 crop season, a total of Rs 1672.03 crore was paid as premium to insurance companies collectively by the farmers, the state government and the Central government. Against this, farmers got Rs 2097.93 crore as claims for crop loss, which is almost 25 per cent more than the premium paid.
In contrast, farmers in neighbouring Rajasthan received claims of Rs 6110.77 crore against premium of Rs 8501.31 crore while those in Uttar Pradesh got Rs 1392.60 crore in claims against premium of Rs 4085.71 crore.
At the national level, an amount of Rs 76,154 crore was paid as premium to the insurance companies, collectively by the farmers, Central Government and the state government, but the farmers received claims of Rs 55,617 crore. The scheme has since been revamped to make it voluntary for farmers and also allow single peril to be covered under it.
“When the PMFBY was launched for the first time in Haryana from kharif 2016, the notification included paddy, bajra, maize and cotton out of kharif crops and wheat, mustard, gram and barley among rabi crops under the scheme. Later, sunflower was added to the rabi crops from the 2018-19 season. The rate of premium was 2 per cent of the sum insured for kharif and 1.5 per cent for rabi crops,” said sources in the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, Haryana.
Sources who didn’t want to be identified said that the difference between the claims and the premium is largely due to heavy claims in kharif crops, particularly in 2017 and 2018 when cotton crop was badly damaged due to whitefly, resulting in poor yield.
In the very first crop season kharif 2016, Rs 256.84 crore was paid as premium to three insurance companies Reliance General Insurance Company, Bajaj Allianz GIC and ICICI Lombard GIC. Of this, farmers’ share was Rs 127.35 crore paid by 1,50,881 farmers, state’s share Rs 83.32 crore and central share was Rs 46.16 crore. Against this, farmers received claims of Rs 234.23 crores.
However, during kharif 2017, farmers received heavy claims of Rs 797.04 crore against total premium of Rs 303.65 crore while for kharif 2018 crop, they received claims of Rs 797.29 crore against premium of Rs 580.92 crore.
In contrast, rabi crops proved beneficial for insurance agencies, as they paid out claims of Rs 57.02 crore against premium of Rs 107.8 crore in 2016-17, Rs 85.3 crore against premium of Rs 149.93 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 127.05 crore against premium of Rs 272.89 crore in rabi crop season 2018-19.
Telling numbers of 3 yrs
- 2016 PMFBY launched in Haryana during kharif season
- Rs 1672.03 cr premium paid to insurance firms collectively by farmers, state and Central government
- Rs 2097.93 cr claims awarded to farmers for crop loss
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