Insurance is the term which commonly used to signify the financial compensation in terms of risk to the life of an individual. But, in the time being this has been spread wide and accepts in the loss of commodity as well, commonly we know this as general insurance. A crop insurance can also be perceived as the kind of general insurance. The concept itself pretty new for the people in the country as very minimal to marginal of the land area is covered under crop insurance scheme in India. Although there are many initiatives by Govt. of India to insure the farmers against any sort of natural calamities and disaster. When we compare such data with any developed country in EU or the US, it is significantly low. In the US, the federal crop insurance scheme covers almost 88% of the total cropped area. Crop insurance provides the cover in many naturally occurring event like hail, drought or flood, in case of many pesticides, fungal or bacterial infections to the crop as well.
In India, the major occupation is still agriculture and is the biggest job provider as well. It is one of the significant contributors to national GDP, with almost 14% total national income. So, if any kind of social welfare scheme govt. should have to initiate to make the public self-sufficient and independent as well then crop insurance scheme should also be implemented along with MANREGA, mid-day meal. Nevertheless, it never is too late to do any good thing. The new scheme launched in the year 2014 with the arrival of the new government at the centre is PMFBY (Pradhan mantra fasal bima yojna). There is two more scheme launched before i.e. the year 1999-2000 National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS) and in the year 2003-2004 farm income insurance scheme, but it withdrew only the next year. PMFBY is the initiated with the intention to safeguard the interest of farmers and save them from bankruptcy.
The major problem in the success of such large scale govt. the initiated plan is the lack of awareness among the targeted section of society. All these plans come with the good intention of keeping the farmers safe from any natural disaster but, the majority fails to grab the attention of people in lack of proper publicity and appropriate marketing. People generally find it difficult to get essential information regarding such plan within their vicinity.
Secondly, most of the farmers in India is still doesn’t have an essential level of literacy to introduce themselves to new technology and gain the knowledge digitally and update themselves with day to day changes.
Third, most of the farmers in India are marginal and practice agriculture on the small piece of land and hence it is so difficult to cover each one of them and could lead to cost overrun for most of the insurance company. And in most parts of the country farmer do farming on leased land or as the daily wedge earner. So, it is quite difficult to transfer the actual benefit of crop insurance to them.
Implementation of the plan and thorough knowledge of the idea should be transferred to the local authority of the society i.e. SHG (self-help group), NGO working on the grass root level working with the actual field force. The government already have a strong channel of gram panchayat and aanganwadi centre in the village and in a semi-urban area.
Mobile and internet is so easily available in every corner of the country and has penetration within each strata of society. A sufficiently educated person could deal it with ease. A good mobile app with a regular update of the crop season, monsoon, climate, preventive measure and manage to hold demand and supply could be the ideal point to start.
Practice to identify the beneficiary and transfer benefits to the actual tiller of land could solve the problem of implementation of such a large programme. An idea to transfer the fund to the lender of the land is more appropriate than giving it to the landholders.
A social awareness should also create in the urban society so that they could relate themselves with the issue of the farmer and major chunk of the population. Majority of the atmospheric data and situation
Of rain is been provided by the government agency only, so there is need from the corporate sector to take initiative to have in direct contact with the farmer and provide them with all support needed and ensure the availability of crop.
