What Is Crop Insurance Week? Key Features To Know About Campaign Designed For Farmers

The Indian Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare promotes Crop Insurance Weel Annually from July 1 to 7 to raise awareness and encourage farmers to enrol in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. This initiative aims to educate farmers about the benefits of crop insurance, increase enrollment and ensure financial security through insurance coverage, particularly in aspirational and tribal districts.

New Delhi: Crop Insurance Week, which runs from July 1 to 7 each year to create awareness about crop insurance programmes and encourage enrollment among farmers, provides insurance coverage to farmers.

A structured awareness campaign ‘Crop Insurance Week/Fasal Bima Saptah’ has been initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare since the Kharif 2021 season onwards.

The core focus of the campaign is to increase the awareness about benefits of the scheme, sensitise the stakeholders and increase the overall enrolment of farmers, thereby helping them to reap the benefits of crop insurance with a special focus on identified aspirational/tribal districts, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare in a written reply in Lok Sabha last year said.

Providing information about Crop Insurance, Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd. (AIC) posted on Social Media X, “Once again, AIC and PMFBY are coming up with Crop Insurance Week. This Crop Insurance Week, get your Kharif crops insured under PMFBY with AIC and become financially secure.”

In the past 8 years of implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)– 56.80 crore farmer applications have been enrolled and over 23.22 crore farmer applicants received claims. During this period, nearly Rs 31,139 crore were paid by farmers as their share of premium against which claims of over Rs 1,55,977 crore have been paid to them.

Thus, for every 100 rupees of premium paid by farmers, they have received about Rs 500 as claims, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare said in March this year.

PMFBY is a demand-driven scheme and is voluntary for the States as well as farmers. The number of farmer applications has grown 33.4 per cent and 41 per cent year-on-year during 2021-22 and 2022-23, respectively. Further during the year 2023-24, there is an increase of 27 per cent in terms of farmers enrolled under the scheme so far.

Also, 42 per cent of total farmers insured under the scheme in FY 2023-24 are non-loanee farmers, the Union Ministry added.

The third largest insurance scheme globally in terms of premium, the PM Fasal Bima Yojana launched in 2016, shields farmers from crop loss or damage arising out of unforeseen events.

The PMFBY is successfully fulfilling the objectives of the scheme including providing financial support to stabilise the income of farmers, especially in natural calamity-hit seasons, years and areas. PMBFY is a Central Sector Scheme, therefore, no State/UT-wise allocation and release is made under the scheme, the Union Ministry said earlier.