Abstract
India is home to over one-third of all undernourished children worldwide, and it ranks 94th out of 107 nations in the Global Hunger Index 2020. Instability in production and market risks make agriculture a risky business and directly affect farmers’ income levels, thereby impacting food security. This review aimed to understand various features of different crop insurance policies in India and to analyze the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’s (PMFBY) impacts on Indian farmers. A literature search was performed in all popular databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest, AGRICOLA, AGRIS, and Google search engines, as well as annual Indian government reports. The keywords “Crop Insurance” OR “Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana” OR “National Agriculture Schemes” AND “India” were searched to obtain relevant articles. By using cumulative data, we conducted a multiple regression analysis and a model was developed to estimate the effects of insurance characteristics on farmer coverage for the years 2017–2018 and 2018–2019. Agricultural insurance coverage under PMFBY remained low in terms of the number of farmers insured, the area insured, claims paid, and total farmers benefited. Compared to other schemes, the beneficiary and claim premium ratios were substantially lower under the PMFBY. The multiple regression analysis showed that farmers’ premiums have a significant effect on the number of farmers insured over time, although the subsidies do not have a significant influence in farmers’ insurance participation. Delays in claim settlement, the complexity of the system, and a lack of awareness among farmers are the major weaknesses of the PMFBY. Greater use of digital media could help spread awareness of these schemes among farmers.
Highlights
India is home to over one-third of all undernourished children worldwide, and it ranks 94th out of 107 nations in the Global Hunger Index 2020 study (Global HungerIndex 2020)
To evaluate the performance of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the challenges it faced in the farmer community, by using cumulative data, we conducted a multiple regression analysis and developed a model to estimate the effects of insurance characteristics on farmer coverage for the years 2017–2018 and 2018–2019
The area insured under the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) (176.36 lakh hectares) was greater than the area insured under the Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS)
Summary
India is home to over one-third of all undernourished children worldwide, and it ranks 94th out of 107 nations in the Global Hunger Index 2020 study (Global HungerIndex 2020). India is home to over one-third of all undernourished children worldwide, and it ranks 94th out of 107 nations in the Global Hunger Index 2020 study Instability in production and market risks make agriculture a risky business and directly affect farmers’ income levels (Gulati et al 2018). The predominance of rainfed agriculture adds to the riskiness of agriculture, on which 58 percent of the Indian population is dependent (India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) 2021). One option available to farmers to hedge against income instability is crop insurance. Efforts have been made both at the central- as well as state-level to introduce a crop insurance scheme for Indian farmers.
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