Cabinet approves enhancement in allocation for PM Fasal Bima Yojana to Rs 69,515 crore

Cabinet approves enhancement in allocation for PM Fasal Bima Yojana to Rs 69,515 crore

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of PM Fasal Bima Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme

In the first Cabinet meeting of 2025 on January 1, the allocation of PM Fasal Bima Yojana was enhanced to Rs 69,515 crore. "The decision will help in risk coverage of crops from non-preventable natural calamities for farmers across the country till 2025-26," said government in a press release.

Also, the Cabinet has approved creation of Fund for Innovation and Technology (FIAT) with corpus of Rs 824.77 crore.

The fund will be utilised towards funding technological initiatives under the scheme namely, YES-TECH, WINDS, etc as well as Research and Development studies.

"Yield Estimation System using Technology (YES-TECH) uses Remote Sensing Technology for yield estimation with minimum 30% weightage to Technology based yield estimates. 9 states are currently implementing (namely AP, Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, MP, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu & Karnataka). Other states are also being on-boarded expeditiously. With wider implementation of YES-TECH, Crop Cutting Experiments and related issues will be gradually phased out. Under YES-TECH Claim calculation and settlement has been done for 2023-24. Madhya Pradesh has adopted 100% technology based yield estimation.

"Weather Information and Network Data Systems (WINDS) envisages setting up Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) at block level and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs) at panchayat level. Under WINDS, 5 times increase in current network density is envisaged to develop hyper local weather data. Under the initiative, only data rental costs are payable by Central and State Governments. 9 states are in the process of implementing WINDS (namely Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh Puducherry, Assam, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan are in progress), while other states have also expressed willingness to implement," added government.