Shimla, January 19:
A two-day National Review Conference on the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) was held in Bengaluru, bringing together senior government officials from across the country, representatives of leading insurance companies, and Vinay Singh, Director of the Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Department.
During the conference, Vinay Singh presented key policy suggestions to make the Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme more farmer-friendly, particularly for hill states like Himachal Pradesh. He highlighted that mountain horticulture—especially apple cultivation—is capital-intensive, long-term, and highly sensitive to climatic variations, making insurance models designed for plain regions ineffective in Himalayan conditions.
He emphasized that localized events such as hailstorms, frost, and cloudbursts require micro-level weather indices and a dense network of automated weather stations for accurate risk assessment. Singh urged that hailstorms be treated as a primary risk rather than an add-on, and that frost damage be included as a major component of insurance coverage.
Referring to climate change, he said insurance coverage periods should be linked to crop phenology rather than fixed calendars. He also stressed that apple orchards are long-term assets, and permanent damage to trees should be covered under insurance schemes.
Singh pointed out that reduced snowfall over the past 15 years has led to inadequate chilling hours in apple-growing regions, affecting flowering and productivity. As the Royal apple variety requires 1,200–1,600 chilling hours below 7°C, he advocated increasing the insurance payout from the current ₹265.
He informed that around 62,000 orchardists in Himachal Pradesh have insured their crops this year, though participation in the hailstorm add-on remained low despite compensation of up to ₹450 per tree at a nominal premium of ₹23 per tree.
The Director appealed to orchardists to enroll under the crop insurance scheme for peach, plum, pomegranate, and orange crops during the current insurance window from February 14 to February 29 to safeguard against potential natural calamities.
