Crop Insurance Schemes
Crop insurance protects a farmer's income when a season goes wrong — drought, flood, hail, pests, or freak weather. Under India's central crop insurance schemes, the farmer pays only a small, capped share of the premium (at most 2% for Kharif, 1.5% for Rabi, and 5% for commercial/horticultural crops); the central and state governments pay the rest. Both schemes below run on the National Crop Insurance Portal (pmfby.gov.in), are voluntary for all farmers since Kharif 2020, and have been continued till 2025-26. Your state decides which of the two applies to each notified crop and area.
- PMFBY — Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana — the flagship yield-based scheme: pays a claim when your area's actual crop yield falls short due to non-preventable natural causes, from prevented sowing through post-harvest losses.
- RWBCIS — Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme — the weather-index alternative: pays automatically when rainfall, temperature, humidity, or wind readings cross harmful limits, with no field-level loss survey needed.