With paid-out claims of Rs 45, 449.17 crores to 62, 405, 476 beneficiaries,Maharashtra has topped the list of states as the leading provider of comprehensive crop insurance to farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) as per the state-wise All India Cumulative Coverage and Claims report released by the Minister of State for agriculture and farmers’ welfare, Bhagirath Chaudhary in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The report covers the period from 2016-17 to 2024-25. Both the PMFBY and the RWBCIS are crop insurance initiatives launched by the government of India in 2016 to provide financial support to farmers for crop losses due to natural calamities or adverse weather.

Following the Deccan state, Rajasthan leads with paid-out claims of Rs. 31,554.48 crores to 50,249,464 beneficiaries. The state of Madhya Pradesh has the third largest paid-out claims of Rs 31,737.14 crores to 30,477,707 beneficiaries.

The farmers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh shouldered the largest share of premiums paid at Rs 6,827.41 crores and Rs 6,819.97 crores respectively.

Under the PMFBY and RWBCIS schemes, as on December 31, 2025, a total of 787,021,056 applications were received for crop insurance and the total farmers’ share of premium was Rs 36,055.07 crores. Claims of Rs 192,477.31 were paid to 232,268,660 beneficiaries.

A brief look at the in agricultural-resources rich states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar shows that the largest number of applications- 52,945,889 were received in Uttar Pradesh. The state also has the highest number of beneficiaries, 9,161,593 people who paid a cumulative share of premium of Rs 3,100.02 crores. However, the state of Haryana paid out the largest amount claims, Rs 9,015.15 crores, to 8,279,192 beneficiaries.

Among the south Indian states, Andhra Pradesh enrolled the highest number of applications at 43, 721,809. While the state of Karnataka paid the highest claims of Rs. 18,654.53 crores to 13,173,981 beneficiaries, its farmers bore the highest share
of premium of Rs 18,654.53 crores.

The state of Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of beneficiaries at 18,160,666 farmers.

Among the North-Eastern states, Assam recorded the largest number of applications enrolled at 6,292,239 and its farmers bore the highest share of premium at Rs 35. 51 crores and paid out the highest claims amount of Rs 736.64 crores to 1,092,550 beneficiaries, the largest number of farmers in the region.

PMFBY provides for comprehensive risk insurance against crop damage from pre- sowing to post-harvest for food crops (cereals, millets and pulses), oilseeds and annual commercial horticultural crops notified by the concerned state government.

None of the states were classified as ‘low-risk’ or ‘high-risk’ under the scheme. However, in order to diversify and spread the risk and cover high-risk and low-risk districts within a state without any prejudice, the state governments and union territory administrations were required to group the districts in such a way that each group contains a mix of districts with different risk profiles.

The purpose of clustering was to divide the states into different groups of districts, so that the expected sum insured (ESI) becomes relatively low and the risk is shared and diversified.

The actuarial-bidded-tendered premium rates were charged by the implementing agencies under the PMFBY scheme.

However, extremely low premium rates across the country for the season was charged from the famers, which was a
maximum 2 percent of sum insured for kharif crops, a maximum 1.5 percent of sum insured for rabi crops and maximum 5 percent of sum insured for commercial and horticultural crops. The remaining part of actuarial premium was shared by the central and state governments on 50:50 basis except the North-Eastern States (from kharif season in 2020) and Himalayan States (from kharif in 2023) where it was shared in the ratio of 90:10. No additional premium over the premium rates stated above was required to be paid by the farmers.

Further, the operational guidelines of the scheme further provide for three alternate
Risk transfer models other than the standard model under the PMFBY scheme,namely the ‘Cup-and-Cap’ model (80:110), ‘Cup-and-Cap’ model (60:130) and the ‘Profit-and Loss Sharing’ model, under which in case of claims below a certain threshold, portion of the premium paid by the central government as subsidy will go back to the state treasury. State-governments have been given the flexibility to choose the main scheme any one of these models.