Performance of Crop Yield and Rainfall Insurance Schemes in Odisha: Some Empirical Findings

This paper makes a comparative assessment of the performance of the National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) (an area-based crop yield insurance) and the pilot Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) (an area-based rainfall insurance) under implementation in the state of Odisha in terms of their coverage, financial performance and operational efficiency in providing a safety net to the farmers when they experience crop loss. The study has used time series secondary data and also primary data collected from 100 sample WBCIS users from the Bolangir district and 100 NAIS users from the contiguous Kalahandi district in the drought-prone western Odisha. The study has revealed that WBCIS performs better than NAIS because of its higher adoption rate, higher percentage of farmers benefited, lower premium, faster claim payment, and frequent indemnity payment. Though the findings show WBCIS to be a more popular scheme than NAIS, in a frequently disaster-affected state like Odisha, the study sees a need for a multi-peril crop yield insurance scheme like NAIS.