2019 Technical Retooling and Learning Alliance Workshop on Crop Insurance between Odisha and Tamil Nadu Stakeholders

Agriculture-based Economies in Tamil Nadu and Odisha heavily rely on rice-based agrifood system. Climate extreme events continue to pose heavy risks to small holder farmers in this geography with floods, cyclones, and frequent droughts threaten their livelihoods. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) Crop Insurance Program by the Ministry of Agriculture, India, so far made a very positive progress with evidence of successful implementations in Tamil Nadu. Given the dynamic, complexity, and tough challenges still ahead in PMFBY Crop Insurance implementation, it is of interest to initiate learning alliance workshop between Odisha and Tamil Nadu stakeholders in order to capture opportunities to further improve PMFBY crop insurance applications in the respective state.

Highlight of PMFBY Tamil Nadu program is briefly summarized here. PMFBY in Tamil Nadu has been implemented since 2016 in 31 districts. Major crops covered are paddy, maize, black gram, green gram, red gram, groundnut, sugarcane, cotton at revenue village level in both Rabi and Kharif seasons. During the first year of implementation of PMFBY in 2016/17 as much as Rs 3,474 crore was disposed to farmers, covering 15.73 lakh farmers. Out of 15.37 lakh farmers, 75% are non-loanee farmers. Tender processed started in 2016/17 season. AICL & NIA for 3 years, ICICI for 2 years. Starting 2017/18 MS Chola also join. The 32 districts are grouped into 3 clusters. ICIC covers 10 districts, AICL covers 11 districts, NIA 10 districts.

Organization team setup plays an important role in the successful implementation of PMFBY in Tamil Nadu. Separate PMFBY cell, headed by Agriculture Production Commissioner, Director of Agriculture, Deputy Director of Agriculture, Assistant Director of Agriculture – PMFBY, Assistant Director of Agriculture – IT, overseeing 4 AOs. The team is well established now with exclusive PMFBY cell at state level and recently even a district level cells have been established, headed by one assistant director of agriculture in every district. Exclusive mobile apps were developed by TN DoA IT cell for real-time monitoring of claims disbursement & state report by government (cluster wise, district wise, and even each farmer information in detail) and for farmers to monitor their own crop insurance program enrollment and status.

Another important factor contributing to the successful PMFBY program in Tamil Nadu is the strong technological support from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). TNAU generates crop area information using satellite technology at district, block, and village level at regular intervals. Dates of crop establishment information are also provided to help identify any potential fail sowing. In TN SLCCI document it is set as 30 days window for fail sowing criteria. If crops fail before 30 days since establishment, TNAU help insurance companies to form District Level Monitoring Committee (DLMC) to invoke fail sowing scheme. TNAU facilitate crop monitoring during growing stages over large areas using satellite technology and location specific using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). In the later case, TNAU helps insurance companies for location specific incidents.