Book of Extended summaries ISDA

International Conference on Reimagining Rainfed Agro-ecosystems: Challenges &
Opportunities during 22-24, December 2022 at ICAR-CRIDA, Hyderabad
Another major problem with PMFBY is non-participation of tenant farmers. Now about 20-25
per cent of operational area is cultivated by share-croppers/tenant farmers, but until now there
is no pool proof mechanism to include them as beneficiaries. Although, some states issued
tenancy certificates like Loan Eligibility Cards (LEC) of Andhra Pradesh, popularity of these
certificates is dismal. As a result, most of the tenant farmers are out of the PMFBY net.
Similarly, in PMFBY there is a need to cover additional costs incurred by farmers in unforeseen
situations. For example, in case of pest outbreak, farmers spend huge amount on purchase of
pesticides to save crop especially in cotton, chillies and vegetables although sometimes these
operations will not result in saving the crops but adds to the cost. There is no provision to cover
for these additional costs, as the sum insured is limited by scale of finance. So, situations vary
significantly across geographies and crops, which force states to withdraw from the PMFBY
and start their own crop insurance scheme according to local needs.
These withdrawn states started their own tailor-made crop insurance schemes to suit their local
conditions over the past few years. Of the schemes, Mukhyamantri Sahay Yojana of Gujarat,
Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana (BRFSY) of Bihar, Bangla Shashya Bima (BSB) of West
Bengal, YSR free crop insurance scheme and Jharkhand Fasal Rahat Yojana are at different
stages of implementation and learning curve.
Mukhyamantri Sahay Yojana of Gujarat, Bihar Rajya Fasal Sahayata Yojana (BRFSY) of
Bihar and YSR free crop insurance of Andhra Pradesh cover all the farmers with zero premium.
In Gujarat, blocks are classified as two categories (i) more than 60% loss with claim of
Rs.25.000/ha, (ii) 33% to 60% loss with claim of Rs.20,000/ha. It seems Gujarat government
scheme is simple to understand and implement. Under the scheme, big losses above 30% are
only covered.
Similarly, Bihar state guaranteed payment of Rs 10,000/ha if the loss was more than 20% of
the threshold yield. If the damage is less than 20% of the threshold limit, farmers can get Rs
7,500 per hectare. However, the indemnity level was kept at 70%. It means farmers in Bihar
also get claims only if yields loss is more than 30%.
Bangla Shashya Bima (BSB) of West Bengal running since 2019 with Agricultural Insurance
Corporation (AIC) as nodal agency. It also covers tenant farmers and share croppers. Farmers
did not have to pay premium for food and oilseed crops. For potato and sugarcane, the farmers
have to pay 4.85% of the sum insured as premium. Under the scheme, if claims are less than
80% of the premium, AIC will refund to the state government the difference between the claims
paid and 80% of the premium received. Claims depends on yield loss indirectly measured by
crop health factor based on satellite and weather data collected from automatic weather stations
maintained by department of agriculture. Major indicators for calculating crop health factor are
crop greenness (normalized difference vegetation index), crop wetness (land surface water
Institutional and policy innovations for accelerated and enhanced impacts
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