National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) in India: An Assessment

The study points out that low coverage, low operational performance, low participation of volunteer farmers, low awareness of farmers, low access of farmers to institutional credit, continuous banks’ failure in achieving the target of priority sector in common and agriculture credit in particular, shrinking the banking facilities in rural areas, re-emergence of unauthorized source of credit in rural areas, low education of farmers, non cooperation of bankers towards farmers, problems of design and implementation of the NAIS, problems of obtaining accurate and timely price data from local markets, the model of measurement of agriculture loss by natural hazards which is not appropriate to all farmers are the common weakness of the National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS). The agriculture sector of India—the main employment provider and the backbone of Indian economy, is affected most by recurring natural hazards due to climate changes, and requires the most care and protection against all sort of uncertainties, hence, NAIS can prove itself as the best protector (Ram Baan) in this context.