K’taka bags national award for best implementation of PMFBY

Karnataka has bagged the national award for the best implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), a crop subsidy insurance scheme, for the year 2022-23.

The PMFBY is a large-scale crop subsidy insurance scheme aimed to safeguard the farmers, implemented in Karnataka in 2016. This scheme is being managed by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, under the Ministry of Agriculture, along with empanelled general insurance companies.

Speaking to DH, B Sharat, Commissioner Department of Agriculture, said that Karnataka has been ranked number one for the effective implementation of PMFBY in India. He attributed the award to several awareness programmes held to motivate the farmers to enroll for the scheme and the timely settlement of claims.

“When I served in Raichur, Kalaburagi and Mysuru as DC, the farmers’ feedback was that why should they enroll for the scheme, when the claims are not settled for years together. The claims of around 5 lakh farmers had not been settled since 2018, due to reasons like Aadhaar number not linked to banks and other technical problems. Hence, we decided to work on it and cleared all the dues from 2018. The claims of the kharif season for the last year were settled by December 31. This has given hope to farmers, resulting in more enrollment,” he said.

He said, “As on May 31, 2022, around 5.66 lakh farmer claims, amounting to Rs 687.4 crore were pending due to various operational and technical reasons since 2018. The department took out a campaign mode approach and cleared all the claims.”

The award was received by Shivayogi Kalasad, Secretary to the government, Department of Agriculture, at the national conference at Chhattisgarh on April 14, he added.

PMFBY is being implemented in Karnataka, through its own portal ‘Samrakshane’, designed and developed by the state through National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Enrollment

The number of farmers enrolled for PMFBY scheme was 16.15 lakh in 2021. It increased to 23.86 lakh in 2022. This was a 47.74% increase in the enrollment, compared to previous year. This was due to information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns across the state.

Extent of land

While the extent of land insured was 13.35 lakh hectare in 2021 kharif, under PMFBY scheme, it increased to 18.94 lakh hectare in 2022 kharif season. This was a 41.8% increase in the area insured, compared to previous year.

While the Common Service Centres (CSC) were enrolling the farmers over the last six years, Grama-One centres have also been enrolling since kharif 2022, making it easily accessible to the farmers. It has enrolled 4.66 lakh farmers, which contributed to an increase in enrollment.

Kharif 2022

For the kharif 2022 season, around 5.60 lakh farmers, whose fields were affected by natural calamities have already been compensated within the same year, with crop insurance claims settled is Rs 298.57 crore.