PIB TrackerStates return to crop insurance as claims cross ₹2.06 lakh crore
West Bengal rejoined this Kharif and Bihar will implement the scheme from Rabi 2026-27; ten years have paid claims on 26.33 crore farmer applications.
What happened
- A PIB backgrounder records 92.46 crore farmer applications insured and claims of over ₹2.06 lakh crore paid on 26.33 crore applications since Kharif 2016.
- The Union Budget 2026-27 allocates ₹12,200 crore to PMFBY, implemented by 25 States and Union Territories in Kharif 2026.
- As on 27 August 2026, 241.38 lakh farmers and 278.12 lakh hectares are insured, above Kharif 2025's 229.77 lakh farmers and 269.38 lakh hectares.
- West Bengal rejoined from Kharif 2026 and Bihar joins from Rabi 2026-27, after Andhra Pradesh in 2022 and Jharkhand in 2024.
- Andhra Pradesh's enrolment fell 77 per cent and Maharashtra's 40 per cent in Kharif 2025 after both ended 100 per cent state payment of the premium.
For Prelims
- PMFBY: launched 18 February 2016; farmer premium capped at 2 per cent for Kharif and 1.5 per cent for Rabi foodgrains and oilseeds, 5 per cent for commercial and horticultural crops.
- Premium subsidy: the balance is shared by Centre and State 50:50, and 90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan States and Union Territories.
- Prevented sowing: claims of up to 25 per cent of the sum insured where insured farmers are prevented from sowing by adverse weather.
- Post-harvest losses: crops left in cut-and-spread condition for drying are covered for up to 14 days after harvest against cyclonic and unseasonal rain.
- Loanee and non-loanee: loanee premiums are deducted from the crop loan, while about 50 per cent of enrolments over ten years have been voluntary non-loanee farmers.
- YES-TECH: remote-sensing yield estimation, launched for paddy and wheat in Kharif 2023 and soybean in Kharif 2024, its weight rising from 30 per cent to up to 50 per cent.
- WINDS: Automatic Weather Stations and Automatic Rain Gauges collecting hyperlocal weather data at block and gram panchayat level.
- RWBCIS: the weather-index scheme working on an Area Approach in Reference Unit Areas, covering 25.95 lakh applications over 12.31 lakh hectares in Kharif 2026.
For UPSC: The standing example for agricultural risk transfer and for how Centre-State premium sharing decides a scheme's reach. Use it on climate-resilient agriculture, on farm distress and credit, and on the technology stack — YES-TECH, WINDS and CROPIC — that now does loss assessment.
What it is NOT: The dip in insured farmers in 2025-26 is not evidence of farmers losing faith in crop insurance — it follows two state governments withdrawing the 100 per cent premium payment that had inflated their own enrolment.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.4 · GS3.5 · Linkage L2
Anchor
The scheme's enrolment curve tracks state budgets more closely than farmer demand: two states paying the entire premium lifted the national count, and their withdrawal brought it down again.
Substantiation (data)
92.46 crore applications insured and over ₹2.06 lakh crore paid since Kharif 2016; ₹12,200 crore allocated for 2026-27; 241.38 lakh farmers and 278.12 lakh hectares insured as on 27 August 2026; ₹9,837.61 crore paid for Kharif 2025.
Exemplification
Anwar Hussain of Chankhala village in Assam's Nagaon district paid a premium of ₹100 and received ₹50,600 after heavy rain damaged his crop.
Problematisation
States have left and re-entered the scheme repeatedly — Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and now Bihar — so what a farmer is covered for depends on the season and the state he farms in.
Way-forward
Land records are integrated with the national portal for about 85 per cent of the insured area in ten states; extending that validation is what makes area-based claims defensible.
Position
Crop insurance here is only nominally a contract between a farmer and an insurer — the premium, the coverage and even the state's participation are political decisions taken season by season.
Deploys into: Agriculture + subsidies (GS3.4, GS3.5) · crop insurance as agricultural risk transfer, and Centre-State premium sharing as the real determinant of coverage.
PIB Backgrounder · 2026-08-29 · PRID 2304549 · PIB source ↗