Safeguarding India’s Harvest: Unveiling Crop Insurance Trends, Performance, and Constraints
摘要
Crop insurance plays a critical role in safeguarding Indian farmers from risks like extreme weather, pests, and other uncertainties. PMFBY and RWBCIS, two flagship CI schemes of the government, have been operating since 2016. This chapter assesses their performance on 3 Cs, i.e., coverage, claims, and constraints using the data from NSSO’s 74th Round Survey and PMFBY portal for years 2018 and 2022. There is a steep decline (47–41 mha) in the area insured under PMFBY which is mainly driven by a drop in Rabi area coverage. Likewise, the RWBCIS coverage has also been reduced drastically (9.7–0.7 mha) during the study period. The coverage is less in Rabi (9%) than Kharif (11%) season. Staples like paddy wheat, and maize have less than 8% coverage, an area of concern. The Insurer Claim Ratio (ICR) under PMFBY declined from 0.90 to 0.50 in 2022, while for RWBCIS, it increased from 0.38 to 0.54. The claims settled are less as compared to premiums paid by the farmers for both schemes. The major bottleneck in the adoption of CI in India is identified as a lack of awareness across all the crop classes.