Dr. YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme (Andhra Pradesh)

What is the Dr. YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme?

Dr. YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme is the crop insurance programme the Government of Andhra Pradesh ran through its Department of Agriculture & Cooperation from 2019 onward. The scheme's defining feature was that the farmer did not pay for the cover. Andhra Pradesh met the farmer's share of the actuarial premium out of the state budget, and the farmer paid a token of Rs 1 at the Rythu Bharosa Kendra purely so that an electronic enrolment record existed against his name.

Dr. YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme was designed around a second Andhra Pradesh innovation: e-Crop, the village-level digital crop booking done by the Village Agriculture Assistant at each Rythu Bharosa Kendra. Instead of asking farmers to fill insurance proposal forms, the department treated the e-Crop entry, which records the survey number, the crop sown, the extent and the name of the person actually cultivating: as the enrolment. That single design choice is why the scheme could cover tenant farmers and sharecroppers, who are routinely left out of crop insurance elsewhere because the land is not in their name.

The scheme is commonly written in Telugu transliteration as YSR Ubhaya Bhara Rahita Ucita Pantala Bima, and farmers often refer to it simply as "free insurance" or ucita pantala bima.

Following the change of state government in June 2024, Andhra Pradesh renamed a large set of welfare programmes. Dr. YSR Free Crop Insurance Scheme was among them: crop insurance in the state is now administered under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) name, and e-Crop has been renamed e-Panta. The department, the village-level delivery points and the DBT claim route are unchanged. This page describes the scheme as it operated and flags where the name has moved, because most farmers still search for it by the older title.

Who is eligible for crop insurance in Andhra Pradesh?

You can be covered if:

• You cultivate a notified crop in a notified mandal for that season. Crops and insurance units are notified separately for Kharif and Rabi by the Agriculture Department, and a crop that is not notified in your mandal cannot be insured there.
• Your cultivation is recorded in e-Crop / e-Panta for the current season, against your name and your survey number.
• You are a tenant farmer or sharecropper holding a Crop Cultivator Rights Card. Andhra Pradesh explicitly opened cover to non-owning cultivators.
• You have taken a crop loan from a bank on a notified crop. Loanee farmers are enrolled compulsorily by the financing branch.
• You are a non-loanee farmer. Enrolment is voluntary for you, and is done through the e-Crop booking at the Rythu Seva Kendra.

You are not eligible, or you cannot claim, if:

• Your crop was never e-Crop booked for that season. This is the single largest cause of rejected claims in Andhra Pradesh, and it cannot be fixed after the season closes.
• You sowed a crop different from the one booked. Claims are settled against the booked crop, so a mismatch between the field and the record breaks the claim.
• The crop or the mandal is not notified for that season.
• The loss falls outside the insured perils, for example, losses caused by war, nuclear risk, or wilful negligence and theft are standard exclusions in Indian crop insurance and are not payable.
• You are a tenant without a Crop Cultivator Rights Card, in which case the record will stand in the landowner's name and any claim will reach the landowner, not you.

What does the scheme pay?

Cover is not a fixed rupee figure. The sum insured is notified for each crop and each insurance unit and generally reflects the scale of finance for that crop, so a hectare of paddy and a hectare of chilli carry very different cover. The claim is what the insurer pays when loss is established, up to that sum insured.

Two claim mechanisms operate:

1. Yield-based cover. The department conducts Crop Cutting Experiments in the notified insurance unit; usually a village or a mandal — at harvest. If the actual yield falls below the threshold yield fixed for that unit, every insured farmer in the unit receives a proportionate claim. No individual survey is needed, and the payment is uniform across the unit.
2. Weather-based cover. Payment is triggered by data from the reference weather station: deficit or excess rainfall, unseasonal rain, high or low temperature, humidity, or wind speed crossing the level written into the term sheet. Cyclone-related payouts on the Andhra coast are usually settled this way, and settlement is faster because no yield estimation is required.

Claims are credited by Direct Benefit Transfer into the Aadhaar-seeded bank account of the person named as cultivator in e-Panta.

How to apply for crop insurance in Andhra Pradesh

1. Get your crop e-Panta booked. At sowing, ensure the Village Agriculture Assistant records your crop, extent and survey number at the Rythu Seva Kendra (formerly Rythu Bharosa Kendra) in your village. Collect the physical e-Crop / e-Panta acknowledgement receipt and keep it. This receipt is your proof of enrolment.
2. Verify the name on the record. Check that the cultivator name printed on the receipt is yours, not the landowner's, if you farm as a tenant. If it is wrong, get it corrected before the season's cut-off date; corrections after the cut-off are not accepted.
3. Pay the token registration amount where the counter asks for it, and confirm the enrolment is reflected in the department's system.
4. If you have a crop loan, tell your bank branch which crop you have actually sown. Loanee enrolment is done by the branch against the loan account, and a mismatch between the loan record and the field is a common cause of rejection.
5. Check the social audit list. The enrolled beneficiary list is displayed at the Rythu Seva Kendra and the Grama Sachivalayam. If your name is missing, raise it immediately with the Mandal Agriculture Officer.
6. After a loss, report it at the Rythu Seva Kendra as soon as possible. Localised losses such as hailstorm, landslide or inundation require individual intimation, usually within 72 hours; widespread yield loss is captured through Crop Cutting Experiments and needs no individual claim form.

How to check enrolment and claim status

1. Visit the Rythu Seva Kendra with your e-Panta receipt and Aadhaar and ask the Village Agriculture Assistant to pull up your record.
2. Check the printed enrolment and claim lists displayed at the Rythu Seva Kendra and Grama Sachivalayam after each season's settlement.
3. Check the bank account statement for the Aadhaar-seeded account, since claims arrive by DBT and are often credited without an SMS reaching an old number.
4. Use the Agriculture Department information services at apagrisnet.gov.in and the department call centre for scheme-level information.

Why crop insurance claims get rejected in Andhra Pradesh

• No e-Crop / e-Panta booking for the season. Without it there is no insurance and no claim.
• Crop mismatch, the field carried a different crop from the one booked.
• Wrong cultivator name, so a claim earned by a tenant is paid to the landowner. The fix is a Crop Cultivator Rights Card obtained before sowing.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, or a closed or dormant account, so the DBT credit fails and bounces back.
• Crop or mandal not notified for the season in question.
• Late intimation of a localised loss, beyond the notified intimation window.

Most of these are preventable at sowing rather than at harvest. Checking the e-Panta receipt in the first two weeks after sowing is the single most useful thing an Andhra Pradesh farmer can do to protect a future claim.

Key dates in the season

Enrolment is not open all year. Each Kharif and Rabi season, the Agriculture Department notifies crops, insurance units, sums insured and a cut-off date for enrolment, district by district. Kharif cut-offs typically fall in the monsoon sowing window and Rabi cut-offs in the winter sowing window, but the exact dates change every year and differ by crop. Farmers should confirm the current season's date at the Rythu Seva Kendra rather than assume last year's date carries forward.

Help and grievance redressal

• Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Department call centre: 155251
• Rythu Seva Kendra in your village, the first point of contact for enrolment, e-Panta correction and loss intimation
• Mandal Agriculture Officer, then the District Joint Director of Agriculture, for claims not settled after the season closes
• Grama / Ward Sachivalayam for Aadhaar and bank-seeding corrections

Crop insurance enrolment in Andhra Pradesh is free to the farmer beyond the token registration amount. No agent can charge a fee to add your name to the insured list, and no official will ask for your bank OTP.