The union government’s flagship programme—the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana—launched in 2016 and revamped in 2020 for providing crop insurance to farmers—needs fundamental and structural changes for its effective implementation. The need of the hour is a more forceful and impactful state involvement in the scheme.
Crop insurance would be essential in insulating a large proportion of India’s farmers against food insecurity in the future. How has the government fared in implementing it till now?
The Government of India aims to double the crop insurance coverage to 50% through the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana by 2018. By analysing the agricultural household data, this article comments on the feasibility of attaining this target by looking at the past performance of similar schemes. Few critical areas where efforts need to be concentrated in order to increase coverage are discussed.
