Farmers get a raw deal after suffering crop loss

Khammam: Many farm experts are critical of the loopholes in implementing the Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) while extending crop insurance to make good crop losses. They contend that PMFBY is more beneficial to the insurance companies compared to farmers as most insurance companies are not settling claims under one pretext or the other.

Farmers have been demanding that the scheme ought to be peasant-friendly and scientific or else shift to the DBT (direct benefit transfer) procedure.

Mandadapu Sudhakar, chairman of PACS and recipient of the Jalamitra award, said, “Insurance companies have earned `40,000 crore from PMFBY since its inception. The premium being paid by the farmers and central government is more than the amounts paid to the farmers towards crop loss. The scheme is a cash cow for insurance companies. Instead of paying a premium, it makes sense if the government share is paid to farmers directly”.

PMFBY was introduced on February 16, 2016and it had 13 insurance companies in the panel. The companies were paid `1.59 lakh crore for the last six years while the farmers were only paid claims to the tune of `1.19 lakh crore.

A.L. Dora, a farmer, said “It is better if the premium amounts are paid to farmers.”

Telangana government has paid `989 crore as premium for one season in 2021 while the insurance companies paid `817 crore towards crop loss. This implies that the insurance companies earned `172 crore in one season from one state.

Under the scheme, farmers pay two per cent of the sum insured as their share of the premium for kharif crops and 1.5 percent for Rabi.

B Rambabu said “The questions posed by company officials while settling claims are atrocious and in bad taste”.

He said that like those from Telangana, farmers in states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat are against the scheme.