New Delhi, Jan 1 (Mayank Nigam) The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved continuation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26 with an overall outlay of Rs 69,515.71 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The decision will help in risk coverage of crops from non-preventable natural calamities for farmers across the country till 2025-26. The Union Cabinet also approved creation of Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) with a corpus of Rs 824.77 crore aimed at large scale technology infusion in implementation of the scheme leading to increasing transparency and claim calculation and settlement.
The fund will be utilised towards funding technological initiatives under the scheme namely, YES-TECH, WINDS, etc as well as Research and Development studies. Yield Estimation System using Technology (YES-TECH) uses Remote Sensing Technology for yield estimation with minimum 30% weightage to Technology based yield estimates. Nine major states are currently implementing (namely AP, Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu & Karnataka). Other States are also being on-boarded expeditiously. With wider implementation of YES-TECH, Crop Cutting Experiments and related issues will be gradually phased out. Under YES-TECH Claim calculation and settlement has been done for 2023-24. Madhya Pradesh has adopted 100% technology-based yield estimation.
Weather Information and Network Data Systems (WINDS) envisages setting up Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) at block level and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs) at panchayat level. “All efforts are made and will continue to be made to saturate all farmers of North Eastern States on priority. To this extent, the centre shares 90% of premium subsidy with North Eastern States. However, due to the scheme being voluntary and low gross cropped area in North Eastern States, flexibility has been given to avoid surrender of funds and for reallocation in other development projects and schemes with fund requirement,” an official statement said.