As climate-related risks, erratic weather and extreme events continue to pose challenges to agriculture, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) has emerged as a key component of India’s crop insurance framework, providing financial protection to farmers against crop losses caused by natural calamities, adverse weather, pests and diseases.
Launched in 2016, the scheme is aimed at ensuring affordable crop insurance coverage and helping farmers manage income shocks arising from crop losses. Over the past decade, PMFBY has expanded its coverage while increasingly relying on digital technologies for crop assessment, enrolment, claim settlement and grievance redressal.
A decade of crop insurance coverage
The PMFBY was launched on February 18, 2016, with the objective of bringing a larger number of farmers under crop insurance coverage.
The scheme provides protection across different stages of the crop cycle, beginning with risks that can prevent sowing and extending to specified post-harvest losses.
Under PMFBY, insured crops can be covered against risks including drought, floods, inundation, cyclones, hailstorms, lightning, pests and diseases. The scheme also provides provisions for prevented sowing, specified post-harvest losses and certain farm-level losses caused by localised calamities.
Since its inception in Kharif 2016 up to Rabi 2025-26, more than 92.46 crore farmer applications have been insured, while over 26.33 crore farmer applications have received claims amounting to more than Rs 2.06 lakh crore.
The government has allocated Rs 12,200 crore for PMFBY in the Union Budget 2026-27, reinforcing its focus on crop insurance and farmer protection.
Keeping crop insurance affordable
One of the key features of PMFBY is the cap on the premium payable by farmers.
Farmers pay a maximum premium of 2 per cent for Kharif foodgrain and oilseed crops and 1.5 per cent for Rabi foodgrain and oilseed crops. For commercial and horticultural crops, the maximum premium is 5 per cent.
The remaining premium is subsidised by the government. The Centre and States generally share the subsidy in a 50:50 ratio, while the Centre and States/Union Territories in the North-Eastern and Himalayan regions share it in a 90:10 ratio.
The relatively low farmer contribution is intended to make crop insurance accessible across different sections of the farming community.
Coverage extends beyond loanee farmers
PMFBY is not restricted to farmers who have taken crop loans.
Both loanee and non-loanee farmers can be covered under the scheme, subject to prescribed eligibility conditions.
Tenant farmers and sharecroppers are also included, provided they meet the applicable requirements relating to insurable interest, land documents, tenure agreements or sowing certificates and other state-specific conditions.
Non-loanee farmers can voluntarily enrol for crop insurance. According to the government, such farmers have accounted for an average of around 50 per cent of all farmer enrolments over the last decade.
Since 2018, more than 1.44 crore tenant and sharecropper farmers have cumulatively been enrolled across States and Union Territories.
Protection across the crop cycle
PMFBY is designed to provide protection at different stages of cultivation and harvesting.
For standing crops, the scheme provides area-based coverage against non-preventable risks such as drought, dry spells, floods, inundation, cyclones, hailstorms, lightning, pests and diseases.
Farmers who incur expenditure but are prevented from sowing because of adverse weather conditions can be eligible for claims of up to 25 per cent of the sum insured, subject to the applicable conditions.
Specified post-harvest losses are also covered. Crops that have been harvested and are lying in the field in a cut-and-spread condition for drying can receive coverage for up to 14 days against specified cyclonic and unseasonal rainfall events.
The scheme also provides for individual farm-level losses caused by specified localised calamities, including hailstorms, landslides, inundation, cloudbursts and natural fire.
At the same time, PMFBY does not cover every type of loss. Risks such as war, nuclear risks, riots, theft and other specified preventable risks are excluded. Losses occurring outside notified areas or outside the covered crop lifecycle are also not covered.
Growing scale of coverage
PMFBY is currently being implemented by 25 States and Union Territories in Kharif 2026.
In Kharif 2025, crop insurance covered 229.77 lakh farmers across 269.38 lakh hectares. By August 27, 2026, enrolment for Kharif 2026 had increased to 241.38 lakh farmers, covering 278.12 lakh hectares.
For Kharif 2025, claims worth Rs 9,837.61 crore had been paid to 60.89 lakh eligible farmers, providing financial support following crop losses.
The government has also reported that national enrolment reached an all-time high in 2024-25, with more than 15.23 crore farmer applications, covering more than four crore farmers and over 623 lakh hectares.
States rejoin the national crop insurance framework
The implementation of PMFBY varies across States and has also evolved over time.
Andhra Pradesh rejoined the scheme from Kharif 2022, followed by Jharkhand from Kharif 2024 and West Bengal from Kharif 2026. Bihar has decided to implement PMFBY from the Rabi 2026-27 season.
The government has also highlighted state-specific changes in enrolment. In Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, a previous approach under which the State Government paid 100 per cent of the farmer’s premium had resulted in particularly high enrolment. After the approach was discontinued in 2025, enrolment fell in both states.
However, Andhra Pradesh saw enrolment recover strongly in Kharif 2026, with 16.22 lakh farmers enrolled by August 28, compared with 7.43 lakh in Kharif 2025. Maharashtra recorded 42.55 lakh enrolments by the same date, reaching 92 per cent of its Kharif 2025 level.
Other major agricultural states recorded increases in enrolment in Kharif 2025. Uttar Pradesh registered a 35 per cent rise, Haryana 20 per cent, Rajasthan 19 per cent and Madhya Pradesh 12 per cent. Chhattisgarh and Odisha also recorded increases.
Technology at the centre of crop insurance
A major change in PMFBY implementation has been the growing use of digital technology.
The National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) serves as a central digital platform for farmer enrolment, subsidy administration, coordination and information dissemination. It also supports claim calculation and the electronic transfer of eligible claims into farmers’ bank accounts.
Integration of land records with NCIP is being used to validate insured areas and improve identification of the relevant land parcel, insured area and farmer. Around 85 per cent of the insured area in the States where the system has been implemented is now validated through integrated land records.
The DigiClaim module, introduced from Kharif 2022, enables digital processing and monitoring of claims through NCIP and the Public Finance Management System. More than Rs 55,000 crore in claims have been calculated and paid through the digital platform since its inception.
The CCE-Agri App enables digital capture and uploading of Crop Cutting Experiment data. This yield data is used to calculate actual yields for insurance units and determine eligible claims, while also allowing insurance companies to witness the crop-cutting exercises.
Using satellite technology and weather data
Technology is also being used to improve crop-yield estimation and weather monitoring.
The Yield Estimation System Based on Technology (YES-TECH) uses remote sensing and other technology-based methods to generate crop-yield estimates. It was introduced for paddy and wheat in Kharif 2023 and for soybean in Kharif 2024. Its weightage in yield assessment has since increased to as much as 50 per cent in certain States.
The Weather Information Network and Data System (WINDS) uses Automatic Weather Stations and Automatic Rain Gauges to collect hyperlocal weather information at the Block and Gram Panchayat levels.
The data can support weather-based crop insurance, crop-yield estimation, disaster management, weather forecasting and other insurance products.
Another initiative, CROPIC, uses geo-tagged photographs to periodically assess crop health within an insurance unit. It is also being developed to support crop-damage assessment and yield estimation through image-based analytics.
Grievance redressal and farmer support
Digitalisation has also extended to grievance redressal.
The Krishi Rakshak Portal & Helpline (KRPH) provides farmers with a dedicated toll-free number, 14447, to register grievances, seek assistance and track the resolution of crop insurance-related issues.
Since its nationwide launch in January 2024, the system has addressed and resolved 26.12 lakh grievances, with a reported resolution rate of 99.66 per cent.
Other digital tools, including the App for Intermediary Enrolment and Crop Loss Assessment App, are aimed at improving access for non-loanee farmers and speeding up assessment and settlement of individual farm-level losses.
Weather-based insurance as a complementary safety net
Alongside PMFBY, the government implements the Restructured Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS).
Unlike PMFBY, where claims are primarily linked to assessed crop-yield losses, RWBCIS is an index-based scheme in which payouts are determined by specified weather parameters acting as a proxy for crop damage.
The scheme covers weather-related risks such as deficient or excessive rainfall, dry spells, extreme temperatures, humidity and wind speed, based on predefined thresholds recorded at notified weather stations.
States and Union Territories can also offer add-on farm-level coverage for certain severe localised risks such as hailstorms and cloudbursts.
In Kharif 2026, RWBCIS covered 25.95 lakh farmer applications across 12.31 lakh hectares, particularly supporting coverage for fruits, vegetables and plantation crops.
Strengthening resilience in a changing climate
Over the past decade, PMFBY has evolved from a conventional crop insurance programme into a broader technology-enabled agricultural risk management framework.
Its combination of affordable farmer premiums, government subsidy, coverage across different stages of the crop cycle and expanding digital infrastructure is aimed at helping farmers withstand income shocks caused by climate and biological risks.
With technologies such as NCIP, DigiClaim, CCE-Agri App, YES-TECH, WINDS and CROPIC being integrated into the system, the focus is increasingly on making crop insurance more transparent, accurate and timely.
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