NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday revamped its flagship crop insurance scheme to address existing challenges in its implementation where farmers invariably have to suffer due to delay in disbursal of claims in case of crop failures. It made the scheme voluntary for loanee farmers and increased the central share in premium subsidy to 90% per cent for north-eastern states from the existing sharing pattern of 50:50.These changes, approved by the Union cabinet, are proposed to be implemented from upcoming Kharif (summer sown crop) season throughout the country. The government will separately bring a new scheme for 151 highly water stressed districts The changes will be applicable for two ongoing schemes - the ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS). It is expected that the changes will enable quick and accurate yield estimation leading to faster claims settlement and increase the insurance coverage in the north-eastern states.“Enrolment under the scheme will be made voluntary for all farmers,” said Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar while briefing on the Cabinet’s decision. It is currently mandatory for loanee farmers to take insurance cover under the PMFBY which was launched in February 2016.Since the scheme is now being made voluntary for all farmers, a separate scheme will be prepared to provide financial support and effective risk mitigation tools through crop insurance, especially for 151 districts which are highly water stressed. These 151 districts include 29 such districts which are doubly stressed because of low income of farmers and drought.The minister said though the number of farmers opting for these crop insurance schemes may drop immediately under the revamped schemes, the enrolment would eventually pick up as the government would launch an awareness campaign on importance of taking a crop insurance policy.The PMFBY provides comprehensive crop insurance against non-preventable natural risks at extremely low premium rate of 2% for Kharif crops, 1.5% for Rabi (winter sown) crops and 5% for horticulture and commercial crops. The remaining premium amount is shared equally as subsidy between Centre and respective States.Referring to other changes in the revamped schemes, the minister said that the States will not be allowed to implement these schemes in subsequent seasons in case of considerable delay in release of requisite premium subsidy to insurance companies beyond a prescribed time limit.Cut-off dates for invoking this provision for Kharif and Rabi seasons will be March 31 and September 30 of successive years respectively for both PMFBY and RWBCIS.The minister also shared that technology solutions like Smart Sampling Technique will be adopted in conducting Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) for assessment of yield loss. “In case of non-provision of yield data beyond cut-off date by the States to implementing Insurance Companies, claims to be settled based on yield arrived through use of technology solution,” said an official statement on the cabinet decision.Under the revamped schemes, allocation of business to Insurance Companies will be done through tender process for three years as against the current policy of one to three years.Besides these changes, the Union agriculture ministry in consultation with other stakeholders/agencies will prepare state specific alternative risk mitigation programme for crops/areas having high rate of premium.