The Union government will launch a new crop insurance scheme next month, which aims to keep the premium burden on farmers below 3 per cent, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said today.
“We will announce a new crop insurance scheme in January as a New Year gift to farmers. Currently, premium rates are as high as 40 per cent in some States. Under the new scheme, premium will be brought down significantly,” Singh said after launching a mobile app on crop insurance and agri-market here.
Besides low premium, there will be a mechanism in place to ensure that crop insurance claims are settled early, he added. “We are coming out with a crop insurance system that is science-based as well as free from the patwari system. We will use new technologies such as drones to assess the crop loss and settle claims at the earliest,” Singh said.
The Cabinet had, on December 2, discussed the proposal on new crop insurance scheme, which was moved by the Agriculture Ministry. But the decision was deferred due to differences over the premium issue. The proposal will soon be discussed again.
In a Cabinet note, the Agriculture Ministry has proposed a premium of 3 per cent required to be paid by farmers. And for the benefit of farmers in vulnerable and disaster-prone areas, the ministry has recommended premiums without any cap unlike the existing scheme MNAIS (Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme).
Premium charges Of the total premium fixed by the insurers under the existing crop insurance schemes NAIS (National Agricultural Insurance Scheme) and MNAIS, farmers are paying a premium of up to 3.5 per cent and 8 per cent respectively, and the rest is being borne by the government.
On an average, insurance firms are charging an overall premium in the range between 1 and 20 per cent for crops.
Under MNAIS, premiums are capped at 13 per cent in most vulnerable areas for kharif crops, while 11 per cent for rabi crops.
About 20 per cent (40.27 million hectares) of the total farm land is insured under the existing schemes, according to the government data.
Rajasthan has the maximum area insured at 12.26 million hectare followed by followed by Bihar, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
Major crops insured are oilseeds, rice, wheat, pulses and coarse grains.
The Centre is implementing various farm insurance schemes since 1985, to insulate farmers against agri—risks.
At present, it is offering three crop insurance schemes – NAIS, MNAIS and weather-based crop insurance scheme.
Apps for farmers Meanwhile, the government today launched two mobile phone applications that will enable farmers get information related to crop insurance and prices of agri- commodities in different mandis across the country.
The AgriMarket Mobile App and Crop Insurance Mobile App have been developed by the in-house IT division of the Agriculture Ministry and can be downloaded from Google Store or mKisan portal.
Farmers can get information related to crop insurance cover available, and also calculate the premium for notified crops based on area, coverage amount and loan amount, Singh said.
Farmers can also get details of normal sum insured, extended sum insured and subsidy information of any notified crop in any notified area.
Farmers can get information related to prices of crops in markets within 50 km of their own device location using the AgriMarket Mobile App, he said. This app automatically captures the location of the farmers using mobile GPS and fetches the market prices of crops in markets which fall within the range of 50 km.
The prices of agri commodities are sourced from the Agmarknet portal. Currently, these apps are available in English and Hindi languages.