The crop insurance segment, driven by the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana saw an almost 288 percent growth in business for the financial year 2016-17. The segment saw premiums of Rs 20,611.42 crore in FY17 as compared to Rs 5,310.06 crore collected In FY16. Data from the General Insurance Council showed that compared to a market share of 5.5 percent in FY16, it grew to 16.1 percent in FY17. The private sector players collected Rs 9,864.77 crore of premium in the crop segment while public sector insurers collected Rs 3,682.52 crore of premium. Agriculture Insurance Corporation of India (AIC) collected Rs 7,064.13 crore in FY17. Currently, motor insurance is the largest segment of business for general insurers. This is now followed by health insurance and crop insurance. This is expected to get a further impetus in the current financial year. The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) will have an increased presence since the government has allocated Rs 9000 crore for the scheme. In 2016-17, they were allocated Rs 5,500 crore. During his budget speech, finance minister Arun Jaitley said that the coverage under the scheme will be increased to 50 percent of cropped area in 2018-19. “The Fasal Bima Yojana launched by our Government is a major step in this direction. The coverage of this scheme will be increased from 30 percent of cropped area in 2016-17 to 40 percent in 2017-18 and 50 percent in 2018-19,” said Jaitley in the budget speech. The Budget provision of Rs 5,500 crore for this Yojana in budget estimate 2016-17 was increased to Rs 13,240 crore in revised estimate to 2016-17 to settle the arrear claims. The sum insured under this Yojana has more than doubled from Rs 69,000 crore in Kharif 2015 to Rs 1,41,625 crore in Kharif 2016. Also, farmers have been paid Rs 13,240 crore as arrears in 2016-17. More than 1 million farmers have been given cover under this scheme, making India the third largest agriculture insurance market in the world after US and China. The scheme, approved by the Cabinet in January 2016, has a uniform premium of two percent to be paid by farmers for all kharif crops and 1.5 percent for all rabi crops. For commercial and horticultural crops, the farmers’ premium is five percent. The rest of the premium is paid by the government. Source - http://www.moneycontrol.com