PM Fasal Bima Yojana Extended Till 2026 with Rs 69,515 Crore Budget

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Wednesday that the Union Cabinet has approved the extension of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) until 2026, ensuring continued support for farmers across India. The scheme, which covers risk from the sowing of crops to their storage, will receive a total budget allocation of Rs. 69,515.07 crore.

Chouhan highlighted that over 4 crore farmers benefitted from the scheme in 2024 alone, with more than 8 crore applications received. The beneficiaries received a cumulative claim amount of Rs. 1.70 lakh crore. "This decision reflects the government's commitment to providing financial security to farmers, reducing the worry of crop loss," Chouhan said.

The government has also taken additional steps to support the agricultural sector. An advance storage plan for DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) fertilizer has been approved, with Rs. 3,850 crore allocated for its storage. Furthermore, the Union Cabinet has removed the minimum export price on rice, allowing for greater exports. A significant memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India and Indonesia, facilitating the export of one million metric tonnes of non-basmati white rice.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a message, emphasized the government's dedication to the welfare of farmers, stating that the first major decision of the new year reflects a strengthened crop insurance scheme aimed at providing more security and reducing farmers' risks.

The extension of PMFBY and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme until 2025-26 was approved by the Cabinet, ensuring comprehensive risk coverage against non-preventable natural calamities. The scheme's outlay of Rs. 69,515.71 crore will cover farmers nationwide.

In a move to enhance transparency and improve claims settlement, the government has also established a Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) with a corpus of Rs. 824.77 crore. This fund will support the integration of new technology, including the YES-TECH (Yield Estimation System using Technology), which employs Remote Sensing Technology for crop yield estimation. Nine major states, including Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh, are currently implementing YES-TECH, with plans to expand to other states.

Madhya Pradesh has fully adopted technology-based yield estimation, and other states are being onboarded. The implementation of YES-TECH will gradually phase out Crop Cutting Experiments and related manual procedures.

The government also expressed its commitment to prioritizing the saturation of PMFBY among farmers in northeastern states, although the voluntary nature of the scheme and the lower gross cropped area in these regions have allowed flexibility in fund allocation for other development projects.