Status and Determinants of Crop Insurance in Gujarat

Agricultural insurance is one product by which farmers can stabilize farm income and guard against disastrous effect of losses due to natural hazards. The farming community in India consists of about 121 million farmers of which only about 20 percent avail crop loans from financial institutions out of which three-fourths of those are insured. In this context this study is focus on estimation of crop insurance across the crops, magnitude and reasons for crop losses along with determinants of crop insurance and constraints faced by the farmers in crop insurance. The findings of study point out that the share in crop insurance was highest in cotton (24.14percent) crop followed by paddy (21.11percent) and groundnut (19.13percent). The value of loss in crops value was higher in cotton (57.78percent) and groundnut (21.09percent) as compared to other crops. The study pointed out that most of the marginal landholding farmers did not opt for crop insurance. The social forwardness (other than ST, SC and OBC) directly affects the use of crop insurance. The irrigated land holding size negatively influenced the crop insurance use by the farmers. The farmers ’whose primary occupation was crop production opt for more crop insurance as compared to farmers with wages, salaries and off-farm business. The higher crop value loss realization positively linked with the use of crop insurance at the farmer level. To achieve the desired results from new Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)there is a need for crop insurance campaign to focus on sensitizing the farmers about the realized crop losses in crop production, which are covered in PMFBY.