Big news for farmers: Crop damage caused by animals will be compensated; how will they benefit?

There's great news for farmers. The government will now cover crop losses caused by wild animals under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). This will be implemented from the 2026 Kharif (summer) sowing season. This will provide significant relief to farmers.

In addition, losses caused by inundation of paddy crops due to heavy rains and floods will also be covered under the PMFBY.

In a statement, the Agriculture Ministry explained that farmers across India are facing crop losses due to attacks by wild animals such as elephants, wild boars, nilgai, deer, and monkeys.

The ministry said these incidents are particularly common in areas located near forests, wildlife corridors, and hilly terrain. "Under the revised framework, crop losses caused by wild animal attacks will now be recognized as a fifth additional cover under the localized risk category," the ministry said.

How will farmers benefit from this scheme?

States will release a list of wild animals responsible for crop damage and identify vulnerable districts or insurance units based on historical data. The ministry stated, "Farmers will be required to report damage within 72 hours by uploading geotagged photos using the crop insurance app."

Several states are demanding this.

The statement said, "The framework has been developed in accordance with the PMFBY operational guidelines, ensuring a scientific, transparent, and operationally viable framework for implementation across the country and will be implemented from Kharif 2026."

The ministry explained that crop losses caused by wild animal attacks often remain unrecovered because they are not covered under crop insurance.

"Farmers cultivating paddy in flood-prone and coastal states have been frequently affected by inundation during heavy rains and overflowing waterways," the statement said. Paddy flooding was removed from the local disaster category in 2018 due to concerns about moral hazard and the difficulty in assessing submerged crops. However, its exclusion created a significant protection gap for farmers in seasonal flood-prone districts.

Considering these emerging risks and challenges, the Agriculture Department formed an expert committee. The committee's recommendations have now been approved by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Crop losses due to paddy flooding will also be covered.

The Ministry stated that it has now approved the modalities for covering 'crop losses due to wild animal attacks and paddy flooding' under the PMFBY. "With this important decision, farmers suffering from crop damage at the local level will now receive timely and technology-based claim settlement under the PMFBY."

Farmers in these states will benefit significantly.
This coverage is expected to significantly benefit farmers in states with high human-wildlife conflict, such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand. Farmers in Himalayan and northeastern states, such as Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Sikkim, and Himachal Pradesh, will also benefit.

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