Evolution of Crop Insurance Schemes in India

Abstract

It is true that the share of agriculture in GDP of India decline over the past few decades but still the agriculture sector occupies a significant place in the Indian economy. In the employment generation agriculture sector remains prime place in India. Approximately half of the total workforce of India still engaged in the agricultural activities. Agriculture sector always works under risks and uncertainty because agriculture depends upon the weather and climate conditions that is always unpredictable. Due to the variability in weather and climate, farmers face a lot of risks. Natural calamities also a big issue in India that affects the farmers a lot and destroy the crops of farmers time to time. So, it become necessary to protect the farmers by adopting the appropriate instruments like crop diversification, crop insurance etc. In this paper, we examined the various crop insurance schemes introduced in Indiaon time to time. For this study, secondary data was used. The results of the study indicate that numbers of crop insurance schemes were introduced in India and every previous scheme is replaced by new schemes with some new technology or improvements to make more beneficial for farmers. Currently, in India only four crop insurance schemes are in operation namely UPIS, CPIS, RWBCIS and PMFBY.