Less than 20 per cent Indian farmers have crop insurance, exposing a majority of them to the vagaries of weather and leading some of them to take their lives, as is being reported after untimely rains damaged Rabi crops.
According to an industry chamber Assocham-Skymet Weather study released on Sunday, at the all-India level, only 19 per cent farmers reported ever having insured their crops. The rest of them were found to be either unaware of crop insurance or not interested in it, while 24 per cent said that the facility was not available to them.
Only 11 per cent felt that they could not afford to pay the insurance premium, the study said. According to the report, there are about 32 million farmers who have been enrolled in various crop insurance schemes.
However, delay in claim settlements is one big reason for farmers not being covered, despite significant government subsidy.
The government is piloting a modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme, a market-based scheme with involvement from the private sector, to ensure timely claim settlement, among other things.
Favouring weather-based insurance products against yield- based ones, the chamber’s general secretary DS Rawat said the government’s shift from a social crop insurance programme to a market- based one, with active private sector involvement, will offer significant benefits to farmers.