SME Times News Bureau | 19 Feb, 2020
The Union cabinet on Wednesday decided to make the Pradhan Mantri Fasal
Bima Yojana (PMFBY) voluntary for farmers, Agriculture Minister Narendra
Singh Tomar said.
Addressing an event here, 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 of 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.
