An Evaluation of National Agricultural Insurance Scheme in India

The credit for pioneering work on Crop Insurance in India goes to S Chakravarti who in 1920, proposed an Agricultural Insurance Scheme based mainly on the rainfall approach. The National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) with effect from 1999-2000, by improving the scope & content of the erstwhile CCIS. Agriculture insurance provides financial security to the person engaged in agriculture and allied activities. The study observed that most of the farmers do not participate willingly in crop insurance schemes. Farmers expect to receive alternative payment from the government in catastrophic year/crop failure years irrespective of premium payments but the delay in claim payments is one of the reasons for farmers unwillingness for participation in the scheme. There is need to maintain a reserve fund for the operation of agriculture insurance scheme by the Agriculture Insurance Company (AIC) of India. The budgetary provision for crop insurance by the states will also help in solving the problem of delay in claims payment. There is need to create awareness among farming community about the crop insurance for increasing the participation.