In a revelation which has came to light in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, various insurance agencies have disbursed more than 400% amount of claims to farmers against their share of premium paid under Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) during the last 10 financial years.

This came to light in response to an unstarred question asked by Lok Sabha MP Deepender Hooda during Tuesday’s proceedings.Deepender had sought details on the total number of loanee farmers in the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25. Besides this, he had sought details of the number of farmers covered under PMFBY, the amount of total premium collected from farmers, and the government share under PMFBY in each of the last ten Financial Years.

According to a reply by MoS Ramnath Thakur, in Haryana, a total of Rs 8,546 crore has been disbursed as claims to the farmers in past 10 years. The reply added that premium under various scheme as farmers share was quantified for Rs 2,058 crores. Notably, Union and the state govts, through various agencies, bear the burden of crop insurance. Referring to the number of farmers who are under debt under any scheme, the MoS informed that a total of 1.99 crore farmers have been registered under various schemes. Out of these, 1.89 crore farmers are under debt, both under short or long term schemes. Referring to Himachal Pradesh, the reply added that there are 22.30 lakh farmers who are insured under various schemes.