Besides imposing heavy penalty on rogue farmers, officials proposed that such farmers be debarred from the low-premium scheme for the season. The most glaring case highlighted in the meeting was from Churu in Rajasthan, during the rabi 2012-13 season, where 5.2 lakh hectares with gram plantation were insured, but revenue department estimated the sown area to be 1.27 lakh hectares while satellite imagery showed 2.34 lakh hectares.

"(There is) tendency among farmers to show higher value crops in terms of scale of finance though they avail loans for low value crops with intention to fetch higher claims in case of yield losses," it said. "Lending banks do not object to it (reporting area discrepancies) due to their interest to fulfil target of the priority sector." Banks are " interested to insure their loan with subsidised crop insurance", according to a presentation at the conference. Gopal Naik, professor at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore, said the problem persists as integrity of data cannot be verified. "As far as data is concerned, there is always a question because we don't have proper data from the government sources like crop area and so on. So, we have to go by farmer's declarations and this is what the government system accepts," said Naik who is on the board of directors of Agricultural Insurance Company (AIC) of India. Most issues relating to crop insurance have been linked to inadequate data collection. "Declaration is made at the time of taking loan which is provided by the bank or any other agency and insurance is based on that application. This particular process has been sort of a self-declaration and there is always some checks done, but I don't think it is foolproof," Naik said. According to the June 2016 quarterly report of AIC, operating profit from crop insurance business has decreased by more than 70%, compared to June 2015 quarterly report. According to government officials, farmers try to avail themselves of the entire loan they are eligible to take for their land at the beginning of the sea son although vagaries of weather determine what crop they plant and how much of the area they cultivate. Historically , cases of discrepancy in t area insured and area sown were re ported in every crop season. Dr PK Mishra committee report, which was submitted in May 2014, gave recommendations in this regard which have been incorporated in PMFBY.