The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) until 2025-26, with an overall outlay of Rs. 69,515 crore for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26. The decision aims to provide crucial risk coverage for crops affected by non-preventable natural calamities, benefiting farmers across the country.
The Cabinet has also approved the establishment of the Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) with a corpus of Rs. 824 crore. This fund will support large-scale technological infusion, ensuring greater transparency and improved claim calculation and settlement under the scheme.
Technological advancements for crop insurance
The YES-TECH (Yield Estimation System using Technology) initiative will play a key role in the enhanced implementation of the scheme. YES-TECH utilizes remote sensing technology for yield estimation, giving at least 30% weightage to technology-based yield estimates. At present, nine major states, including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, have adopted this system, with additional states being onboarded quickly. With the wider rollout of YES-TECH, traditional crop-cutting experiments will be phased out.
For the 2023-24 season, claim calculation and settlement have already been completed under YES-TECH. Madhya Pradesh has fully adopted technology-based yield estimation.
Focus on northeastern states
The government is prioritizing the saturation of crop insurance coverage for farmers in the northeastern states. The Centre will continue to share 90% of the premium subsidy for these states. However, due to the voluntary nature of the scheme and the relatively low gross cropped area in these regions, the government has provided flexibility for states to reallocate funds to other development projects and schemes, avoiding the surrender of unused funds.
