Digital Piggery Insurance Scheme, Nagaland

What is the Digital Piggery Insurance Scheme in Nagaland?

Digital Piggery Insurance is an app-based livestock insurance initiative of the Government of Nagaland, run by the Department of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services together with the Nagaland State Rural Livelihood Mission (NSRLM). Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio unveiled it at the Investment Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN) event at the Capital Convention Centre, Kohima on 27 November 2024.

According to the Directorate of Information & Public Relations, the initiative was developed in collaboration with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Tata AIG. The stated design goal is narrow and practical: an app-based system that simplifies registration and claim processing for livestock farmers, addressing the challenges of remote connectivity and reducing costs.

Speaking on Nagaland's 62nd Statehood Day on 1 December 2024, the Chief Minister described it as one of India's first Digital Piggery Insurance schemes, launched because of the potential of the piggery sector and the challenges facing farmers in it. At the launch he framed the scheme as providing financial security while "exemplifying inclusivity by helping farmers in the most remote areas", and specifically highlighted the partnership between NSRLM and the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department.

The Chief Secretary had flagged the product two months earlier. Briefing media on the Nagaland Credit Empowerment Summit at Noune Resort, Chumoukedima on 20 September 2024, Dr J. Alam, IAS listed "Building a Robust Insurance Ecosystem in digital piggery Insurance scheme with Tata AIG" among the Finance Department's measures, alongside accidental insurance for police personnel and the expansion of CMHIS.

Why does Nagaland need piggery insurance?

Pig farming is the dominant livestock activity in Nagaland, and the risk it carries is real.

• Around 70 per cent of all Naga households keep one or more species of livestock, with pig accounting for the majority of the sector, according to Secretary, AH & Veterinary Services, Angelina Tajen, IAS.
• Nagaland's swine population stood at 4.04 lakh as recorded in the 20th Livestock Census, which the department itself says falls short of the state's pork demand.
• Piggery development in the state has been devastated by the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) across the entire North East, severely affecting production, with many piggeries closed down.

Speaking at a refresher course on livestock insurance held at Hotel Japfü, Kohima on 23 March 2026, Secretary Tajen put the logic plainly: thousands of animals and birds are affected by disease every year, and for a small farmer the loss of even one animal can mean loss of income, loss of food security and loss of financial stability. Livestock insurance, she said, acts as a critical safety net that converts uncertainty into assured protection, and it is not the responsibility of one institution alone, requiring government support, administrative efficiency, insurance sector participation and, most importantly, farmer awareness and trust.

That refresher course was organised with the College of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry, Central Agricultural University (Imphal), Jalukie, Peren, and sponsored by the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India. Its subject, livestock insurance disease diagnostics and post-mortem, is exactly the technical capacity a claim under any pig insurance product depends on.

What are the benefit terms?

The sum insured, the premium and the premium-sharing ratio for Digital Piggery Insurance have not been published on any official Government of Nagaland source that we were able to verify. The DIPR releases describe the mechanism and the partners but do not state amounts, and the Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services Annual Administrative Report for 2024-25 does not carry the scheme.

We are not going to publish a figure we cannot source. If you need the current sum insured and premium, ask:

• the Chief Veterinary Officer for your district, or
• the Directorate of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services, Kohima, at dirvety-ngl@nic.in, or
• your NSRLM village representative, since NSRLM is a named delivery partner.

Who can use the Digital Piggery Insurance Scheme, and who cannot?

You can be covered if:

• You are a pig farmer in Nagaland who owns the animals to be insured.
• You farm in a remote or poorly connected area — this is the specific constituency the app-based design was built for.
• You are a member of an NSRLM Self Help Group, which is the delivery channel the state has paired with the veterinary department for this product.

You are not eligible if:

• You do not own pigs. This is a livestock insurance product tied to the animals insured.
• You are looking for a cash grant or subsidy. Insurance pays only on a valid claim after a covered loss; it is not an income transfer.
• The scheme is not yet operational in your district. Because the state has not published a district-wise rollout list, availability must be confirmed locally before you rely on it.
• You want cover for cattle, poultry, sheep or goats under this particular product. Those species are addressed through other departmental and Government of India routes.

How to apply for Digital Piggery Insurance in Nagaland

1. Contact the Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO) for your district. The department lists CVO offices for Dimapur, Kiphire, Kohima, Longleng, Mokokchung, Mon, Peren, Phek, Tuensang, Wokha and other districts, each with its own email address on vety.nagaland.gov.in. Ask whether the digital piggery product is currently open in your district and what the present terms are.
2. Ask your NSRLM village representative. If your household is in an SHG, NSRLM is the state's named partner for this scheme and the fastest route to a straight answer.
3. Get the app and register your animals. The scheme is app-based by design, with registration and claim processing handled digitally so that a farmer in a remote area does not depend on repeated physical visits. Have your Aadhaar, ownership details and bank account ready.
4. Get the veterinary certification done at your nearest veterinary hospital or dispensary at the time of taking cover, so the animals are properly identified on the policy.
5. On a loss, report immediately and get the post-mortem done. Livestock death claims turn on the post-mortem and diagnostic report. The department has been training its veterinarians specifically on this, so insist that the procedure is done properly and the report is issued.

What other livestock support does the department run?

If digital piggery insurance is not available to you, the Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services department runs several parallel lines of support for pig farmers, and these are separate schemes with their own rules:

• National Livestock Mission - Entrepreneurship Development Programme (NLM-EDP). A Government of India sub-component covering poultry, sheep and goat rearing, piggery, feed and fodder production and breed development through credit linkage of 50% bank loan and 50% capital subsidy from the Government of India. It started in 2021-22 and continues. Applications go through the online portal nlm.udyamimitra.in, and around 85 entrepreneurs from Nagaland had applied as of the 2024-25 report.
• Classical Swine Fever Control Programme. The department has vaccinated 92.85 per cent of the pig population in the state, working through hospitals, dispensaries, health centres and 16 Mobile Veterinary Units, and proposed to vaccinate 2,50,000 pigs during 2025-26.
• ASF prevention, control and restocking. Awareness and capacity building on ASF prevention is being given to farmers, and the department is restocking pigs following the Standard Operating Procedure provided by the Government of India, having produced more than 1,000 piglets for breeding and propagation at farmer level.
• State Pig Breeding Centres, being strengthened for operation through PPP mode to raise piglet production in the districts, with artificial insemination for pigs developed in collaboration with KVK Wokha for pig semen processing.

A pig farmer in Nagaland is therefore generally better served by approaching the CVO with the whole picture: insurance, vaccination, restocking and NLM credit, than by pursuing any one of these in isolation.

Where do I contact the department?

• Directorate of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services, Government of Nagaland: dirvety-ngl@nic.in
• District Chief Veterinary Officers, listed with email addresses on vety.nagaland.gov.in
• Nagaland Livestock Development Board (NLDB), Lerie, Kohima
• NSRLM, Directorate of Rural Development, New Secretariat Road, Kohima-797001, phone 0370-2270141

A note on what could not be verified

We could confirm from Government of Nagaland sources that the Digital Piggery Insurance Scheme exists, when it was launched, who the partners are and what problem it was built to solve. We could not confirm from any official Nagaland source the sum insured, the premium, the premium-sharing ratio, the number of animals a single farmer may insure, the list of covered perils and exclusions, the district-wise rollout status, or a dedicated helpline number for the scheme. No official portal or app listing dedicated to the scheme is published on vety.nagaland.gov.in.

Treat any figure you see quoted for this scheme elsewhere with caution until you have it from your District Chief Veterinary Officer or the Directorate in Kohima.

How to check your application status

Digital Piggery Insurance does not have a published, standalone online status-tracking portal on vety.nagaland.gov.in, so status has to be confirmed through the people actually running the scheme on the ground.

• Ask your NSRLM village representative first. Since NSRLM is the named delivery partner and works through Self Help Groups, your SHG representative usually has the fastest visibility into whether your registration went through and what stage a claim is at.
• Contact your District Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO). Every district (Dimapur, Kiphire, Kohima, Longleng, Mokokchung, Mon, Peren, Phek, Tuensang, Wokha and others) has a CVO office with its own listed email on vety.nagaland.gov.in. The CVO's office holds the veterinary certification and post-mortem records that any claim depends on, so it is the authoritative point for status on both registration and claims.
• Check the registration app directly, if you were given access to one at enrolment. Since the scheme is built to be app-based for registration and claim processing, the app itself (where issued) should show whether an animal's cover is active and whether a filed claim is pending, approved or rejected.
• Write to the Directorate if the district office cannot resolve it. The Directorate of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Services, Kohima, can be reached at dirvety-ngl@nic.in for cases that need escalation above the district level.
• Follow up in person for a claim that has gone quiet. Because a livestock death claim depends on a timely post-mortem and diagnostic report, a delay is often on the documentation side rather than a rejection, and an in-person visit to the veterinary hospital or dispensary where the post-mortem was done can clear it up faster than a written query.

Since no scheme-specific helpline number has been published for Digital Piggery Insurance, the CVO office and NSRLM representative are the only verified channels for a status check; treat any other number you see quoted for this scheme with caution until you have confirmed it locally.

Common reasons for rejection

Because Digital Piggery Insurance pays out only against a valid, documented loss and not as a grant, most rejections trace back to a gap in identification, timing or paperwork rather than eligibility itself.

• The animal was not registered or certified before the loss occurred. Livestock insurance covers an animal from the point it is identified and certified on the policy. If a pig dies before veterinary certification was completed at enrolment, there is no policy record to claim against. Fix: get the veterinary certification done at your nearest veterinary hospital or dispensary at the time you take cover, not after.
• No post-mortem was carried out, or it was done too late. Claims for animal death turn on the post-mortem and diagnostic report, and the department has specifically trained its veterinarians on this because a delayed or missing post-mortem cannot reliably establish the cause of death. Fix: report the death immediately to the nearest veterinary facility and insist the post-mortem is done and documented before the carcass is disposed of.
• The cause of death falls outside what the policy covers. As with most livestock insurance, deaths from causes excluded under the policy terms, or from negligence in basic animal care, are typically not payable. Fix: ask your CVO or the insurer's local representative what perils are actually covered before you rely on the policy, since the exact exclusion list for this scheme has not been separately published.
• Ownership or identity details on the claim do not match the registration. If the animal, the owner's name, or the SHG membership recorded at claim time does not match what was captured at registration, the claim can be held up or refused. Fix: keep your Aadhaar, ownership proof and bank details consistent between registration and any later claim, and correct mismatches with the CVO office as soon as you notice them.
• The farmer or district was never actually covered. Since the state has not published a district-wise rollout list, some farmers assume they are covered simply because the scheme was announced statewide. If the product was never active in your district, or your registration was never confirmed, there is nothing to claim against. Fix: confirm active coverage with your CVO or NSRLM representative before assuming a loss is insured.
• Premium or contribution obligations, where applicable, were not met. Where a farmer's share of any cost is required at enrolment, an unpaid or incomplete contribution can leave the policy inactive. Fix: confirm with the CVO office exactly what, if anything, is due from you and keep proof of any payment made.

If a claim is rejected, the practical remedy is the same escalation path as a status check: go back to the CVO with the post-mortem report and registration papers first, and escalate to the Directorate in Kohima only if the district office cannot resolve it.