Performance of Crop Insurance Schemes in India - A Study of North-Western States

Agriculture is one of the important economic activities in India. The agriculture sector alone provided employment to about 50 per cent population of the country whereas its share in GDP of India is only 17 per cent at the constant prices of 2011-12. It is one of the vulnerable sectors as it involves the risk and uncertainty which making the conditions of farmers unstable. Crop insurance can be effective tool to reduce the uncertainty in agriculture. The various crop insurance schemes have been introduced in India since independence. This paper has analysed the growth and performance of crop insurance schemes in north-western states of India. Under the weather based crop insurance scheme and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana the Rajasthan has the highest percentage of farmers who have insured their crops. The amount of claims made and number of beneficiaries is the highest in Rajasthan shows the overall performance of this scheme is better in Rajasthan than other North-Western states of India.