More than 84 lakh farmers, which is around 15% of the total farmers insured in the first year of the Centre’s ambitious Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in 2016-17, withdrew themselves from the scheme in 2017-18, a reply to an RTI application has revealed.
It includes 68.31 lakh farmers from the four Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharasthra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The crop insurance companies, including Reliance, ICICI, HDFC and IFFCO, among others, have registered a total profit of around Rs. 15,795 crore since the launch of the scheme, though the final profit margins could change since the insurance claims for 2017-18 Rabi crops are yet to be estimated. The profits for 2016-17 are approximately Rs. 6,459 crore, said the RTI reply.
Source:https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/is-govt-crop-insurance-scheme-losing-steam/article25489781.ece