Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

What is Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana?

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is the Government of India's flagship crop insurance scheme, run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and implemented through empanelled general insurance companies selected by each state. PMFBY insures a notified crop in a notified insurance unit against yield loss, and pays the claim directly into the farmer's bank account.

What makes PMFBY different from ordinary crop insurance is the premium split. The farmer pays a fixed, capped share; the central and state governments pay the rest of the actuarial premium, however high it is. According to the PMFBY operational guidelines, the farmer's share is 2% of the sum insured for kharif food and oilseed crops, 1.5% for rabi food and oilseed crops, and 5% for annual commercial and horticultural crops.

The scheme, along with the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS), has been extended up to 2025-26 with an outlay of Rs 69,515.71 crore.

Key objectives

• Give farmers financial support when a notified crop fails because of natural risks that no farmer can control.
• Stabilise farm income so that one bad season does not force distress sale of assets.
• Keep farmers in agriculture and encourage adoption of modern practices by removing part of the downside risk.
• Ensure credit flow to agriculture continues even after a widespread crop failure.

Main features

• Farmer premium capped at 2% / 1.5% / 5% by crop category, with governments covering the balance.
• Voluntary for all farmers since 2020, including loanee farmers with a KCC or seasonal agricultural operations loan.
• Sum insured equals the Scale of Finance notified by the state for that crop and season.
• Cover across the crop cycle; prevented sowing, standing crop loss, localised calamities such as hailstorm, landslide, inundation and cloudburst, and post-harvest losses for cut-and-spread crops.
• Claims paid by direct benefit transfer into the farmer's account.
• Grievances handled through the Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH) on 14447, launched on 24 February 2024.

Who is eligible for PMFBY?

You can enrol if:

• You are a farmer growing a notified crop in a notified insurance unit for that season, in a state that is implementing PMFBY.
• You are a loanee farmer with a Kisan Credit Card or a short-term seasonal agricultural operations loan for the notified crop; enrolment is your choice, not the bank's.
• You are a non-loanee farmer with no crop loan at all.
• You are a tenant farmer or sharecropper with insurable interest in the crop, supported by a tenancy or lease document your state accepts.
• You enrol before the cut-off date notified by your state for that season.

You cannot enrol: or your enrolment will be rejected; if:

• Your crop is not notified for your area in that season. PMFBY works only on notified crops in notified units; a non-notified crop cannot be insured.
• You apply after the state's cut-off date for the season.
• You cannot establish insurable interest in the land and crop; no land record and no accepted tenancy document.
• Your state is not implementing PMFBY in that season. Participation is at state option and some states have opted out in some years.
• You attempt to insure an area larger than your actual sown area, which is caught at verification.

What does PMFBY cover, and what does it not?

Risks covered

• Prevented or failed sowing where the notified area could not be sown because of adverse seasonal conditions.
• Standing crop loss from drought, dry spells, flood, inundation, widespread pests and disease, landslide, natural fire and lightning, storm, hailstorm, cyclone, typhoon, tempest, hurricane and tornado.
• Post-harvest losses for up to a defined period for crops that are cut and spread in the field to dry.
• Localised calamities; hailstorm, landslide, inundation, cloudburst and natural fire affecting isolated farms rather than a whole unit.

General exclusions

The operational guidelines exclude losses arising out of war and nuclear risks, riots, malicious damage, theft, act of enmity, and crop grazed or destroyed by domestic or wild animals. Preventable losses and any loss outside the notified insurance unit and notified season are also outside cover.

What documents are required for PMFBY?

How to apply for PMFBY online

1. Go to the National Crop Insurance Portal at pmfby.gov.in and select Farmer Corner, Apply for Crop Insurance Yourself.
2. Create a guest farmer account with your mobile number, or log in if you already have one, and verify the OTP.
3. Enter your state, district, block, village and the notified crop you want to insure for the current season.
4. Enter your land details: survey or khasra number and the area under the crop — and your bank account details.
5. Upload your Aadhaar, land record and sowing declaration.
6. Check the premium shown by the portal to 2% of sum insured for kharif food and oilseed crops, 1.5% for rabi, 5% for commercial and horticultural crops, and pay it online.
7. Save the application number and the policy receipt. You will need the application number to track status and to file a claim.

How to apply for PMFBY offline

1. Visit your financing bank branch, a Common Service Centre, or the authorised insurance intermediary for your area.
2. Submit the proposal form with Aadhaar, land record, sowing certificate and bank passbook copy.
3. Pay the farmer share of premium and collect the acknowledgement.
4. Confirm that the entry appears on pmfby.gov.in under your application number before the cut-off date.

Loanee farmers who do not want cover must give the financing bank a written declaration opting out, before the cut-off date notified for the season.

When is the last date to enrol under PMFBY?

PMFBY enrolment cut-off dates are notified season by season and state by state by the respective state government, and they differ across crops within the same season. The authoritative date for your crop and district is published on pmfby.gov.in for the relevant kharif or rabi season; check there rather than relying on a generic date, because an application filed even a day late cannot be accepted.

How to report crop loss and claim under PMFBY

Report the loss within 72 hours of the event. You can use any of these routes:

1. Call the Krishi Rakshak Helpline on 14447.
2. Use the Crop Insurance mobile app.
3. File the intimation on pmfby.gov.in.
4. Call the insurance company's call centre for your district.
5. Inform your financing bank.
6. Inform the local agriculture or revenue officer.

For widespread yield loss, claims are computed from Crop Cutting Experiments conducted by the state, comparing actual yield in the insurance unit against the threshold yield; individual field inspection is not used. For localised calamities and post-harvest losses, the insurer carries out an individual farm assessment, which is why the 72-hour intimation matters so much: without it there is no trigger for a field visit.

How is the PMFBY claim amount calculated?

The Sum Insured for a notified crop equals the Scale of Finance notified by the state government for that crop and season and uploaded on the National Crop Insurance Portal. It is identical for loanee and non-loanee farmers growing the same crop in the same unit.

For widespread losses, the claim is the shortfall of actual yield against the threshold yield, applied proportionately to your sum insured. Because the threshold is a unit-level figure derived from crop cutting experiments, two farmers in the same insurance unit growing the same crop receive the same percentage claim even if their individual fields fared differently.

Common reasons PMFBY claims are rejected or delayed

• Loss not reported within 72 hours for localised calamity and post-harvest claims, so no assessment was ever triggered.
• Crop sown differs from the crop insured; caught at verification, and it invalidates the policy for that field.
• Area insured exceeds the actual sown area on the land record.
• Cause of loss falls under general exclusions; animal damage, theft, riot or malicious damage.
• Incorrect or inactive bank account details, which hold up the DBT credit even after the claim is approved.
• Premium debited but the policy not uploaded to the National Crop Insurance Portal by the intermediary, always verify your application number on the portal.

Help and grievance redressal for PMFBY

• Krishi Rakshak Portal and Helpline (KRPH): 14447, the single-window grievance channel launched on 24 February 2024
• WhatsApp chatbot: 7065514447 for scheme information
• pmfby.gov.in for application status, policy download and loss intimation
• Crop Insurance mobile app for enrolment, premium calculation and claim intimation
• District agriculture officer and the District Level Monitoring Committee for disputes on crop cutting experiments and yield data

Enrolment on pmfby.gov.in is free apart from the farmer's own premium share. No agent can charge you a fee to "get your claim passed"; claims are computed from notified yield data and insurer assessments, not from applications made on your behalf.