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New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) In a major benefit to farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has introduced new modalities under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) to cover crop losses due to wild animal attacks and inundation of paddy in flood-affected areas.
Under the revised framework, crop loss due to wild animal attacks will now be recognized as a fifth add-on cover under the ‘Localised Risk’ category.
States will notify the list of wild animals responsible for crop damage and identify vulnerable districts or insurance units based on historical data.
Farmers will have to report the loss within 72 hours using the crop insurance app by uploading geotagged photographs, the statement said.
These decisions have been taken in response to long-standing requests from many states and are aimed at strengthening the protection of farmers against sudden, localized and severe crop damage.
The modalities have been worked out as per the PMFBY operational guidelines, ensuring a scientific, transparent and operationally viable framework for implementation across the country and will be implemented from Kharif 2026, the statement said.
Over the years, farmers across India have been facing increasing crop losses due to attacks by wild animals like elephants, wild boars, nilgai, deer and monkeys. These incidents are common in areas located near forests, wildlife corridors and hilly terrain. Until now, such losses were often not compensated because they were not covered under crop insurance.
Additionally, paddy farmers in flood-prone and coastal states have been repeatedly affected by floods and flooding of waterways during heavy rains.
Paddy flooding was removed from the local disaster category in 2018 due to moral hazard concerns and the difficulty of assessing submerged crops. However, its exclusion left a significant gap in the protection of farmers in districts prone to seasonal floods.
Keeping these emerging risks and challenges in mind, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare constituted an expert committee.
The recommendations of the committee have now been approved by Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
The statement said that with this important decision, farmers suffering from local crop damage will now receive timely and technology-based claim settlement under PMFBY.
This coverage is expected to significantly benefit farmers in states with high human-wildlife conflict, including Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, as well as Himalayan and north-eastern states like Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, where incidents of wild animal depredation are frequent and widespread.
Resumption of paddy flooding as local disaster cover under PMFBY will particularly benefit farmers in coastal and flood-prone states including Odisha, Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand, where paddy flooding is a recurring challenge.
Along with the inclusion of wild animal attacks, these features make PMFBY more inclusive, responsive and farmer-friendly, thereby further strengthening the resilience of India’s crop insurance system, the statement said.
–IANS
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