The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26. A total budget of ₹69,515.71 crore has been set for this scheme between 2021-22 to 2025-26. This decision will help farmers across the country to provide risk coverage to their crops from non-preventable natural disasters till 2025-26.
Big step for technological development and transparency
Apart from this, the formation of Innovation and Technology Fund (FIAT) has also been approved to improve transparency in the implementation of the scheme and calculation and settlement of claims, with a provision of ₹824.77 crore. This fund will be used for technological initiatives like YES-TECH and WINDS.
What is YES-TECH?
Yield Estimation System using Technology (YES-TECH) is a technology based yield estimation system, which uses remote sensing technology. In this, at least 30% weightage is given to technology based calculations for yield estimation. Currently, nine major states (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka) have adopted it. Other states are also in the process of rapidly adopting it.
Madhya Pradesh adopted 100% technology based yield estimation system in 2023-24, which is gradually eliminating the need for crop cutting experiments.
WINDS scheme and its importance
Under Weather Information and Network Data Systems (WINDS), Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) will be installed at the block level and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG) at the Panchayat level. It is planned to increase the current network density by five times to develop hyper-local weather data.
However, the scheme could not be implemented in 2023-24, as many preparations and plans were required before that. Now it has been approved to be implemented in 2024-25. Under this, priority will be given to the farmers of the north-eastern states. The central government shares 90% of the premium subsidy here.
Special exemption of the scheme in the North-East
Due to the low gross cropped area in the north-eastern states and the scheme being voluntary, a policy of flexibility has been adopted for there. If the fund is not used, it can be transferred to other development projects.
Additional information
This scheme is an effort to help farmers as well as promote technological innovation in the agriculture sector. Technological initiatives will make it possible to accurately assess crop risk and transparent and timely settlement of compensation.
According to agricultural experts, this scheme will not only stabilize the income of farmers but will also reduce the impact of disasters to a great extent. However, there may be some challenges in making farmers aware and implementing technological solutions in rural areas.
Do you also believe that such schemes can give a new direction to India’s agriculture sector? What are your views?
