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about five years, insuring about 33.74 million hectares of cultivate land for
a sum insured of
`
42,849 crore and benefitting 12.26 million farmers. What
is impressive in this weather-based insurance scheme has been the rapid
increases in recent years in coverage so much so that in the latest year 2011-
12, the coverage under WBICs has been at 11.62 million has been close to 70%
of the coverage at 16.74 million under the two-decade old NAIS.
No doubt, the success of the weather-based insurance system is critically
dependent on the availability of accurate weather data on a daily basis as also
without gaps. The poor density of weather stations and the paucity of weather
data in certain regions form a major handicap in the spread of WBCIS product
(Nair, Reshmy 2010, p.21). But, with the series of steps being taken to fine
tune the FASAL scheme for crop area and production forecasting, using remote
sensing and weather data. For this, the expansion of the density of the weather
stations would be an essential condition.
As Nair, Reshmy (February 2010) has rightly pointed out, the traditional
multi-peril NAIS andWBCIS, need not be treated as mutually exclusive; properly
devised using FASAL and Remote Sensing data, they may complement each
other.
