249
Despite the multifarious odds in implementing complex insurance
systems against yield losses or against adverse weather conditions, these
diverse insurance schemes have been evolved based on step-by-step pilot
experiments and constant attempts at increasing coverage of farmers, crops
and risk varieties. These schemes now provide rich experiences in the country
for building comprehensive insurance protection to farmers against crop
damages due to natural calamities (drought, floods, hailstorm and cyclone) or
due to widespread incidence of pests and diseases as well as against anticipated
losses based on adverse weather conditions using weather-based insurance
products. With the emergence of Remote Sensing technology as a powerful tool
even to forecast not only at its advanced stage of growth but also at sowing stage
through econometric and agro-meteorology models “using previous years’ crop
acreage and production data, market prices and current reason weather data”
(Ministry of Agriculture 2012, p.15), or what has come to be known as FASAL
(Forecasting Agricultural Output Using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land-
based observations), vast possibilities have been opened up for firming up
agricultural insurance up agricultural insurance systems for protecting farmer
interests against yield losses or against potential losses due to adverse weather
conditions.
Appendices 100, 101, 102 and 103 present comprehensive data on the
coverage of the above four agricultural insurance schemes, state-wise and year-
wise. These show that the numbers of farmers insured, area insured, sums
insured, claims paid, and the number of farmers benefited expanded over
years. In a short-term context, these benefits obviously fluctuate depending
upon the incidence of crop failures or of weather frailties. As depicted in the
above Appendices, over the long-run there has been a steady there has been
a steady increase. The longest to prevail for over a decade has been the NAIS.
The two worst drought years of 2002-03 and 2008-09 and 2009-10 saw a steep
jump in the number of farmers benefited - from 42.97 lakh in the first period
to 61.96 lakh/90.13 lakh in the next set of years.
Overall, the penetration/coverage of the above four schemes is said to
have touched 25% of the number of farmers/cropped areas in 2011-12. The
number is steadily increasing; it was 19.13 million in 2007-08, increased to
26.21 million in 2009-10 and further to 27.67 million in 2010-11 and to 29.54
million in 2011-12. The latest Annual Report of the Agricultural Insurance
Company of India Ltd., for 2011-12 writes: “However, there is a huge scope for
increasing coverage as out of 120 million farmers, only 25 million are insured
under crop insurance schemes. Majority of the farmers, nearly 90%, are loanee
