The Union Cabinet in February approved to make the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) voluntary for farmers, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said. Addressing the media here, Tomar said that the decision was taken in the Cabinet meeting following complaints regarding the scheme launched in April 2016. PMFBY is compulsory for farmers availing of crop loans and Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) accounts for notified crops, while it is voluntary for others.

The scheme provides comprehensive crop insurance from pre-sowing to the post-harvest period against non-preventable natural risks at an extremely low premium of 2 per cent for kharif crops, 1.5 per cent for rabi crops, and 5 per cent for horticulture and commercial crops.

The decision at the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will lead to the revamp of PMFBY and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) to address the existing challenges in the implementation of crop insurance schemes.