More than 3.66 crore farmers of the estimated 14 crore in the country were enrolled with the NDA government’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in the recently-concluded kharif season (2016-17) and overall coverage of crop insurance is set to surpass the target set for the year, an agriculture ministry statement on Wednesday stated.

“As on date the scheme has provided coverage to 3.66 crore farmers (26.50%) and at this rate it is likely to exceed the target of 30% coverage for both kharif and rabi seasons in 2016-17,” an official statement stated. The ministry has stated PMFBY’s performance in Kharif 2016 in terms of total area covered has been a ‘significant’ achievement, amounting to a total area of 388.62 lakh hectares and sum insured of R141,339 crore. The statement also noted that the performance in the kharif season was better despite the fact that there were teething issues to begin with. “For instance, many states did the bidding process for selection of the insurance companies for concerned clusters for the first time and consequently, the notification of the scheme was delayed in a number of states,” according to the statement.

The agriculture ministry has stated that there has been a jump of more than six times in the coverage of non-loanee farmers from 14.88 lakh in Kharif 2015 to 102.6 lakh in Kharif 2016 under PMFBY, which indicates that ‘the scheme has been well received by the non-loanee segment’.

At the start of the season in June, the Centre named state-owned Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC) and 10 private companies, including ICICI-Lombard General Insurance, HDFC-ERGO General Insurance, IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance and SBI General Insurance, for the implementation of the mega scheme. Launched by the Modi government this January, PMFBY stipulates a uniform premium of 2% to be paid by farmers for kharif crops, and 1.5% for rabi crops. The premium for annual commercial and horticultural crops will be capped at 5%.

For PMFBY, FM Arun Jaitley had allocated R5,501 crore in 2016-17 while R2,995 crore was allocated for various crop insurance schemes in the last financial year. The major subsidy burden for rolling out crop insurance would be borne by both the states and the Centre. Subsidy from the government would now be ‘unlimited’ and grow a steep 183% to R8,800 crore by FY19.