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Crop insurance companies withdraw from Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana as extreme weather events spike claim rates resulting in heavy losses JITENDRA

- JITENDRA

THREE YEARS and seven crop seasons after it was rolled out, nobody seems to be happy with the Centre’s flagship farm insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. While the number of farmers enrolling under the scheme has gone down, insurance companies too are pulling out of it. Ahead of the 2019-20 crop season, three private companies—ICICI Lombard, Tata AIG and Cholamandalam MS—did not bid for the rabi (mid-November to May) and kharif (June to October) seasons due to heavy losses in the 2018 kharif season.

This is a worrying trend as the scheme, rolled out during the 2016 kharif season, is largely spearheaded by private players. It started with 10 private insurance companies and just one public insurance company. During rabi 2016-17, five more companies were empanelled, four of which were government-run. This was the season private player Shriram General Insurance exited from the scheme due to losses. In kharif 2017, two additional private companies joined the scheme taking the total list of empanelled companies to 17. Now, the scheme is left with 14 companies, nine of which are private-run.