After Complaints Over PMFBY, Union Cabinet Approves Making Crop Insurance Scheme Voluntary For Farmers

The Union cabinet on Wednesday (19 February) decided to make the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) voluntary for farmers, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said.

Addressing an event in New Delhi, Tomar said that the decision was taken in Wednesday's cabinet meeting following some complaints regarding the scheme launched in April 2016.

PMFBY is compulsory for loanee farmers availing crop loan and Kishan Credit Card (KCC) account for notified crops, while it is voluntary for others. The scheme provides comprehensive crop insurance from pre-sowing to the post-harvest period against non-preventable natural risks at extremely low premium rates of 2 per cent for kharif crops, 1.5 per cent for rabi crops and 5 per cent for horticulture and commercial crops.

The cabinet also gave its sanction to allocate Rs 6,000 crore for the Farmer Producers' Organisation (FPO) as the government has a target of creating 1,000 FPOs in the next five years.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)