Given the vulnerability of Indian agriculture to vagaries of nature, discuss the need for crop insurance and bring out the salient features of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).
Approach · directive: “discuss / bring out”
What it asks · Explain why Indian farmers need insurance against crop loss, and list the main features of PMFBY that address the weaknesses of older schemes.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Discuss the need for crop insurance, given the vulnerability of Indian agriculture to the vagaries of nature
- Bring out the salient features of PMFBY
Open with · With much of the net sown area rainfed and farm incomes tied to the monsoon, one drought, flood or hailstorm can push a farming family into debt.
Cover
- Need: weather shocks, pests and disease cause sudden income loss, small farmers lack savings, and loss often leads to debt and distress.
- Need: insurance stabilises incomes, supports credit flow to farmers, and encourages adoption of new inputs and crops.
- Older schemes: earlier schemes had high premiums, low coverage, capped sums insured and delayed claims; PMFBY replaced them from kharif 2016.
- Premium: farmers pay at most 2% (kharif food and oilseeds), 1.5% (rabi) and 5% (commercial and horticultural crops); the Centre and States share the rest.
- Coverage: prevented sowing, standing crop loss from natural risks, post-harvest losses and localised calamities such as hailstorm, landslide and inundation.
- Technology: crop-cutting data through smartphones, remote sensing and drones to speed up assessment and claim settlement; compensation is meant to reach farmers' accounts directly.
- Issues: delayed claims, low awareness, poor yield data and insurers' losses in bad years; the scheme is voluntary for all farmers since 2020, so participation depends on trust.
Close with · Timely and accurate yield assessment, quick claim payment and farmer awareness will decide whether PMFBY becomes a dependable shield against nature.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2016, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 277 words (UPSC limit 200) · Minimalist IAS
Much of India's farming depends on the monsoon, and a single drought, flood or hailstorm can wipe out a season's income and push a family into debt. Crop insurance spreads that risk across farmers, insurers and the State.
Need for crop insurance
- Weather shocks, pests and disease cause sudden income loss; small farmers have thin savings, so loss turns into debt and distress.
- Insurance stabilises incomes, keeps credit flowing because banks lend more readily to insured farmers, and encourages adoption of new inputs and crops.
- It is more predictable and less distorting than ad hoc relief and loan waivers.
- Earlier schemes, NAIS and MNAIS, had high premiums, capped sums insured, low coverage and delayed claims.
Salient features of PMFBY
- Approved in 2016 and implemented from kharif 2016, replacing NAIS and MNAIS.
- Low, uniform premium: farmers pay at most 2 per cent for kharif food and oilseed crops, 1.5 per cent for rabi crops and 5 per cent for commercial and horticultural crops; the Centre and States share the rest without a cap, so the full sum insured is covered.
- Comprehensive cover: prevented sowing, standing crop loss from natural risks, post-harvest losses and localised calamities such as hailstorm, landslide and inundation, the last assessed at the individual farm.
- Technology: smartphones for crop-cutting experiments, remote sensing and drones to speed assessment, with claims paid directly into bank accounts.
- Compulsory for loanee farmers and voluntary for others (since then, voluntary for all farmers from 2020).
- Issues: delayed claims, low awareness, poor yield data and insurers' losses in bad years.
Timely and accurate yield assessment, quick claim payment and farmer awareness will decide whether PMFBY becomes a dependable shield against nature.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.