Settlement of Insurance Claims under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is mainly implemented on ‘Area Approach’ basis and comprehensive risk coverage for crops of farmers against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest stages of the crops at very minimum premium for the farmers is provided under the scheme. Admissible claims are worked out and paid directly to the insured farmer’s account by the insurance companies through DigiClaim module on National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP), based on the yield data per unit area furnished to the insurance company by the concerned State Government and claim calculation formula envisaged in the Operational Guidelines of the scheme on receipt of State Government’s requisite share in premium subsidy.   Farmers need not intimate crop loss in respect of these claims.     However, losses due to localized risks of hailstorm, landslide, inundation, cloud burst & natural fire and post-harvest losses due to cyclone, cyclonic/unseasonal rains & hailstorms are calculated on individual insured farm basis.     These claims are assessed by a joint committee comprising representatives of State Government and concerned insurance company.  

            State/UT-wise and year-wise details of claims paid to farmers during last five years i.e. from 2018-19 to 2022-23 under the scheme are given in Annexure.

PMFBY envisages use of improved technology in implementation of the scheme.  Accordingly, Government has taken following steps to infuse modern/ improved technology in implementation including quick and accurate assessment and settlement of the scheme:

• National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) has been developed for ensuring auto-administration, subsidy payment, co-ordination, transparency, dissemination of information and delivery of services including direct online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured famer’s details for better monitoring and to ensure transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmer’s Bank Account.    

• Digiclaim : For transparent calculation and settlement of claims by insurance companies, a claims management module namely “Digiclaim” has been developed w.e.f. Kharif 2022 season wherein all the claims are worked out through National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) and paid to farmers’ accounts using Public Finance Management System (PFMS). This ensures full cycle monitoring of claims right upto the farmer level.
• Integration of Land Record with NCIP: has been completed for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Odisha, wherein 90% of the insured area is now being validated through e-land records of the states through land record integration.
• Capturing of yield data/Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) data through CCE-Agri App & uploading it on the NCIP, allowing insurance companies to witness the conduct of CCEs, integration of State land records with NCIP etc. to improve timely settlement of the claims to farmers.

 

        Further, following technology initiatives for Objective Crop Damage & Loss Assessment and transparency have been approved for implementation w.e.f. 2023-24:

• YES-TECH (Yield Estimation System Based on Technology) for gradual migration to Remote-Sensing based yield estimation to help assess yields as well as fair and accurate Crop Yield Estimation. This initiative has been launched for paddy & wheat crops from Kharif 2023 wherein 30% weightage to yield estimation will mandatorily be assigned to YES-TECH derived yield.

• WINDS (Weather Information Network and Data System) for Network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) & Automatic Rain-Gauges (ARG) for collecting hyper-local weather data at GP & Block level.  This will be fed into a National unified network of AWS & ARG with interoperability & sharing of data in coordination with India Meteorological Department (IMD).  WINDS will provide data not only for YES-TECH but also for effective drought & disaster management, accurate weather prediction and offering better parametric insurance products.

• CROPIC (Collection of Real-time photos and Observations of Crops) for Geo-tagged photographs for validation of sown Crop with Insured Crop and use of pictorial analytics for Objective Crop Damage Assessment & Crop Yield Estimation.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Arjun Munda in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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SK/SS/SM/1453

(Release ID :251220)

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