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Report of the Task Force on Enhancing technology use in agriculture insurance
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is a flagship scheme of the Government of India to
provide insurance coverage and financial support to farmers in the event of failure of any of the
notified crops, unsown area and damage to harvest produce as a result of natural calamities, pests
and diseases to stabilise the income of farmers, and to encourage them to adopt modern agricultural
practices. The scheme is a considerable improvement over all previous insurance schemes in India
and is heavily subsidised by the state and central governments. The scheme aims to cover 50 percent
of the farming households within next 3 years.
During its implementation in the last one season, several challenges relating to enrolment, yield
estimation, loss assessment, and claim settlement were reported by farmers, insurance companies
as well as the state governments. It was also noted that several technological opportunities existed
for possibly leveraging support to the Indian crop insurance program for enhanced efficiency and
effectiveness. NITI Aayog of the Government of India, therefore, constituted a Task Force to deliberate
on this subject and identify such potential opportunities. This report summarises the recommendations
of the Task Force.
The Task Force constituted to address the issue of technology support to crop insurance comprised
the following 5 sub-groups: (1) Remote Sensing & Drones; (2) Decision Support Systems, Crop
Modelling & Integrated Approaches; (3) IT/ICT in Insurance; (4) Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs); and
(5) Technologies for Livestock and Aquaculture Insurance. Each sub-group had several discussions
with experts in the respective areas, and submitted draft reports. More than 100 experts related to
professional research agencies, insurance industry, banks, and the government contributed to these
discussions. Technological options available in the country and abroad were considered by all groups.
The Task Force together with the sub-groups then deliberated on key issues and formulated its
recommendations as presented in this report. During the discussions it was realised that there were
many administrative and institutional issues that needed to be addressed in PMFBY. However, the
focus of the Task Force was on its main mandate, technology use in crop insurance. We hope these
recommendations would help the Indian crop insurance sector take full advantage of the technological
options suggested so as to increase its efficacy and effectiveness leading to reduced agrarian distress
in the country