Syllabus: GS3/Economy
In News
- The Union Finance Minister and Union Agriculture Minister unveiled initiatives focused on agri-credit (KCC & MISS) and crop insurance (PMFBY/RWBCIS) to enhance financial inclusion in the agriculture sector.
New Initiatives Launched
- Kisan Rin Portal (KRP): This digital platform aims to revolutionize access to credit services under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme (KCC) by offering a comprehensive view of farmer data & loan disbursement specifics and fostering seamless integration with banks. It will also assist farmers in availing subsidized agriculture credit through the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS).
- Ghar-Ghar KCC Abhiyaan: This Door to Door KCC Campaign will be implemented from 1st October 2023 to 31st December 2023 to achieve universal financial inclusion. It will do so by fostering the saturation of KCC Accounts among eligible non-KCC account holder PM Kisan beneficiary farmers. It will be primarily implemented by NABARD.
- Launch of Weather Information Network Data Systems (WINDS) Manual: It aims to establish a network of Automatic Weather Stations & Rain Gauges at the taluk/block and gram panchayat levels to support various agricultural services.
Schemes for Agri-Credit
- Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS): It is a central sector scheme launched in the year 2006-07 with a view to provide short term Agri-loans availed by farmers through Kisan Credit Card (KCC) for their working capital requirements at concessional rate of interest.
- Kisan Credit Card Scheme (KCC): It was introduced in 1998 so that farmers may use KCC to readily purchase agricultural inputs for their production needs. KCC is implemented by Commercial Banks, Cooperative Banks and Rural Regional Banks (RRBs) under the overall guidance of the Department of Financial Services.
Crop Insurance
- Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY): It was launched in 2016 and provides a comprehensive insurance cover against failure of the crop.
- The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Agriculture and is implemented by empanelled general insurance companies.
- The scheme is compulsory for loanee farmers availing Crop Loan /KCC account for notified crops and voluntary for others.
- Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS): It was launched in 2016 to mitigate the hardship of the insured farmers against the likelihood of financial loss on account of anticipated crop loss resulting from adverse weather conditions.
- While PMFBY is based on yield, RWBCIS uses weather parameters as “proxy‟ for crop yields in compensating the cultivators for deemed crop losses.
- All standard Claims are processed and paid within 45 days from the end of the risk period.
- The scheme is being administered by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Source: PIB
