Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Insurance, liability and compensation funds · India · 2016

India PMFBY crop insurance

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 3 none on record · 1 insufficient · 1 not measured · 2 disputed See the gaps

India's government-subsidised crop insurance scheme, run through public and private insurers, has been described by the agriculture ministry and by critics with different premium and claims figures. The sources reviewed give no ecological assessment of the scheme.

₹130,015 crore vs ₹170,128 croreClaims paid against gross premium, 2016-17 to 2021-22 (calculated from a Rajya Sabha reply)
Calculation derived from a parliamentary reply; critics cite other figures. See Disputes.

Status As of the latest figures reviewed (2022-23): the government, critics and a parliamentary-reply calculation give different premium and claims totals; no ruling or ecological evaluation found.

What?
India's crop insurance scheme PMFBY, in which farmers pay a small share of the premium and the state pays the rest. Drishti IAS
Where?
India.
When?
From 2016-17; figures reviewed run to 2022-23. Rajya Sabha
Who?
Gained
  • Insurers — Earnings of about ₹15,795 crore reported for 2016-18; the government says the premium–claims gap is not profit. Drishti IAS
Lost
  • Farmers who left the scheme — 84 lakh farmers left in 2017-18. Drishti IAS
Harmed
None on record
Why?
The sources reviewed state the scheme's aim only as crop insurance for farmers; no stated ecological purpose.
How?
Farmers pay 2% (kharif), 1.5% (rabi) or 5% (commercial crops) of the premium; central and state budgets pay the remainder. Drishti IAS
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is a crop insurance scheme in India. According to the Drishti IAS summary of the scheme, farmers pay 2% of the premium for kharif crops, 1.5% for rabi crops and 5% for commercial crops; the state pays the rest.

A calculation from a Rajya Sabha reply, covering 2016-17 to 2021-22, gave gross premium of about ₹170,128 crore and claims paid of ₹130,015 crore, about 76%. The same calculation put the claims ratio at about 49% in 2021-22.

The government has framed the figures differently: it cited farmers' premium share of ₹29,257 crore against ₹152,596 crore in claims, to 2022-23. In February 2020 the government said claims ratios were 77%, 86% and 80% in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, that the gap between premium and claims was not profit, and that reinsurance and administrative costs were 10–12% of gross premium.

Drishti IAS, in November 2018, reported insurers' earnings of about ₹15,795 crore (about ₹6,459 crore of it in 2016-17) and said 84 lakh farmers left the scheme in 2017-18. Critics in a 2022 letter and a 2025 statement by the INLD gave other totals: premiums of ₹126,521 crore against claims of ₹87,320 crore over five years.

  1. 2016PMFBY years begin (2016-17); insurers' earnings of about ₹6,459 crore reported for 2016-17
  2. 2018Drishti IAS reports insurers' earnings of about ₹15,795 crore and 84 lakh farmers leaving the scheme in 2017-18
  3. 2020Government says claims ratios of 77%, 86% and 80% (2016-17 to 2018-19) and that the premium–claims gap is not profit
  4. 2023Rajya Sabha reply (3 Feb 2023) on premiums and claims, 2016-17 to 2021-22

What was said

Claims, in the words of those who made them.

“No windfall gains to private insurers under PMFBY”

Where accounts differ

Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.

How large was the gap between premiums and claims?
Government and regulators
Government of India

Farmers' premium share was ₹29,257 crore against ₹152,596 crore in claims, to 2022-23; the premium–claims gap is not profit because reinsurance and administrative costs are 10–12% of gross premium.

Business Standard (PTI)
Communities and civil society
Critics (2022 letter; INLD 2025)

Premiums were ₹126,521 crore against claims of ₹87,320 crore over five years (figures as given by the critics; not independently verified).

Press and investigations
Drishti IAS

Insurers' earnings were about ₹15,795 crore in 2016-18 and 84 lakh farmers left the scheme in 2017-18.

Drishti IAS

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

  • Farmers pay only a small share of the premium (2% for kharif, 1.5% for rabi, 5% for commercial crops) and receive claims many times what they pay.
    Ministry of Agriculture presentation, as described in the sources reviewed · Drishti IAS
  • Farmers' premium share of ₹29,257 crore against ₹152,596 crore in claims, to 2022-23.
    Government of India

Recorded

  • Gross premium of about ₹170,128 crore and claims paid of ₹130,015 crore over 2016-17 to 2021-22, about 76% (calculation from a Rajya Sabha reply).
    Rajya Sabha
  • Claims ratio fell to about 49% in 2021-22.
    Rajya Sabha
  • Insurers' earnings of about ₹15,795 crore reported for 2016-18; 84 lakh farmers left the scheme in 2017-18.
    Drishti IAS
  • The ministry's presentation does not show the insurers' margin.

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Currency: INR · Window: 2016-17 to 2021-22. All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • Government of India (February 2020): Claims ratios were 77%, 86% and 80% in 2016-17 to 2018-19, and the difference between premium and claims is not profit; reinsurance and administrative costs are 10–12% of gross premium. · Business Standard (PTI)

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

  1. 2022Partly paid
    PMFBY insurers (public and private) → Farmers enrolled in PMFBY

    Claims ratio of about 76% over six years and about 49% in 2021-22, per a calculation from a Rajya Sabha reply. Government figures for 2016-17 to 2018-19 were 77%, 86% and 80%. Rajya Sabha

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Ecological outcome of the scheme
Not on record
The sources reviewed give no data on land, water or crops' ecological condition
Claims paid vs gross premium
76%
2016-17 to 2021-22; about 49% in 2021-22

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
No court caseNo independent ecological evaluationKey earnings undisclosed

Nature

  • Not measured Harm to nature: No independent ecological evaluation is on record.

Court

Accounts

  • Disputed How large was the gap between premiums and claims?

Record

  • None on record The insurers' margin is not shown in the ministry's presentation.
  • Disputed Premium and claims totals differ between the government's figures and those of critics (₹126,521 crore premiums against ₹87,320 crore claims over five years).
  • Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: a 2017 Comptroller and Auditor General finding of unverified releases of funds to insurers.
  • None on record No source reviewed gives gross figures for 2022-23 onward.

Did the harm stop?

Not on record: the sources reviewed describe no change to the scheme or to any ecological outcome.

Who paid?

Central and state budgets pay the premium not paid by farmers; the sources reviewed do not show the insurers' margin.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project✓ Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

Government and regulators

Press and investigations

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Insurance

Premium
The price paid for an insurance policy.
Reinsurance
Insurance bought by insurers to pass part of their own risk to other companies.

Science and environment

Hectare (ha)
A unit of area equal to 10,000 square metres, about 2.5 acres. 100 hectares make one square kilometre.
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