Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday said that the Union Cabinet has agreed to extend the PM Fasal Bima Yojana till 2026, adding that more than 4 crore farmers benefitted through this scheme in 2024.

“Today, the Union Cabinet has agreed to extend the PM Fasal Bima Yojana till 2026. The total budget is Rs. 69,515,071 lakhs. The risk coverage will be from the sowing of the crop to the storage… Last year, more than 8 crore applications from farmers were received and more than 4 crore farmers benefitted. The farmers received Rs.1,70,000 crores as claim… This scheme is going to be extended till 2026,” Chouhan said.

He further said that the government has decided to store the DAP in advance and Rs. 3850 crore have been allotted for it… “Another decision is to export rice… The minimum export price on rice has been removed… Today, a MoU has been signed between India and Indonesia regarding the trade of non-basmati white rice. India will export one million metric tonnes of non-basmati white rice,” he added.

In his message, the PM said, “The first decision of the new year is dedicated to the crores of farmer brothers and sisters of our country. We have approved increasing the allocation for crop insurance. While this will provide more security to the crops of the farmers, the worry of loss will also be reduced.”

PM Fasal Bima Yojana: More Details!

Earlier today, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26 with an overall outlay of Rs 69,515.71 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

The decision will help in risk coverage of crops from non-preventable natural calamities for farmers across the country till 2025-26. In addition, for large-scale technology infusion in the implementation of the scheme leading to increasing transparency and claim calculation and settlement, the Union Cabinet has also approved the creation of the Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) with a corpus of Rs 824.77 crore.

The fund will be utilized towards funding technological initiatives under the scheme namely, YES-TECH, and WINDS, as well as research and development studies. Yield Estimation System using Technology (YES-TECH) uses Remote Sensing Technology for yield estimation with minimum 30% weightage to Technology-based yield estimates. Nine major states are currently implementing (namely AP, Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka).

Other states are also being on-boarded expeditiously. With the wider implementation of YES-TECH, Crop Cutting Experiments and related issues will be gradually phased out.

Under YES-TECH, Claim calculation and settlement have been done for 2023-24. Madhya Pradesh has adopted 100% technology-based yield estimation.

The government said all efforts are made and will continue to be made to saturate all farmers of northeastern states on priority.

However, due to the scheme being voluntary and low gross cropped area in the northeastern states, flexibility has been given to avoid surrender of funds and for reallocation in other development projects and schemes with fund requirements.

(ANI Copy)

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